Energy safety net: the government agrees that more municipalities will benefit from it

The first part of the finance bill was sent back to the National Assembly for final reading yesterday after the joint committee failed to reach an agreement. Therefore, the government decided to shorten the debate by using Article 49-3 of the Constitution once again to adopt this text. “ France should have a budget next January 1, the Prime Minister told the deputies. We need to go ahead and allow the text to be received within the time allowed. “Since the opposition groups have not evolved in their positions, continued Elisabeth Borne, she has taken the responsibility of her government on this text to end the debate.

Text provided by the government basically repeats what was accepted in the first reading but still incorporated some of the changes made by the Senate. Especially in the “safety net” because the Prime Minister ” France made a commitment to the mayors “: became device” simplified and became more accessible.

Original device

The first version, developed by the government, actually had everything from a gas plant. Moreover, it sharply limited the number of municipalities that could benefit from it.

The first version requires three cumulative conditions to benefit from the safety net: be affected by a 25% reduction in total savings between 2022 and 2023; Between 2022 and 2023, more than 60% of the increase in actual operating income was driven by increases in energy, electricity and central heating costs. The third criterion: municipalities could claim the safety net only if their financial potential per inhabitant was less than 2 times. financial potential per average resident.

After all these conditions are met, municipalities and EPCIs “ 50% of the difference between the increase in energy, electricity and heat supply costs between 2023 and 2022 and 60% of the actual operating income between 2023 and 2022 “.

Good news for communities

The main problem mentioned by associations of elected officials and many MPs was that the entrance gate was narrow. While the government believes that ” 22,000 municipalities may have a safety net, especially La Banque Postale calculations, around 8,000 gave a much more modest figure of the municipality. Questioned several times on this topic, Minister of Energy Transition Christophe Bechu understood that there was a problem and “ the front door was too narrow “.

The AIF considered that the threshold for the decline in gross savings, together with the financial capacity criterion, effectively excludes the most fragile local authorities: it is indeed more difficult to deal with a decline in gross savings below this threshold, say 10%. you have little financial potential. However, the senators set the threshold for the reduction of total saving at 15% rather than 25%, which partially meets the proposal of the AIF. We can note that the deputies of the majority tried to correct the situation until the end – after the amendment of the Renaissance rapporteur Jean-René Cazeneuve to the text to restore the 25% limit was accepted in the committee. But the text passed 49-3 contained a nice surprise: the government agreed to set the bar at 15%.

The second piece of good news: the second criterion (energy costs greater than 60% of the increase in actual operating income) has been removed. This will again increase the number of municipalities that can enter the system and simplify calculations.

Finally, the amount of waqf was slightly revised, even if its calculation remained quite complicated. will be equal 50% of the difference between the increase in energy, electricity and heat supply costs between 2023 and 2022 and 50% of actual operating income between 2023 and 2022 », and no longer 60%.

Finally, let’s remember that the government accepted the proposal of the senators, which was not included in the first version of the text: communities that consider themselves suitable can do it “ request a deposit “, based on “an estimate of their financial situation “. This can be the amount of the deposit The 2023 initial budget or resolutions amending the 2023 budget should be listed as projected operating revenue. “.

Let’s add that the news about the repeal of the CVAE is not so good: although the senators “removed the repeal”, the government, surprisingly, stood firm and restored the end of this local economic tax in the final version of the text. . Mayor’s information will return to the compensation conditions finally decided by the executive in a future publication.

Now we have to wait for the passage of the second part of the PLF to know the provisions regarding “trust agreements” and electric shock absorbers, which of course will be done there again by way of 49-3.

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