The Prime Minister announced on Friday an increase of more than 230 million euros to help the departments, meeting in congress in Strasbourg, to finance their expenditure on child protection and assistance for autonomy, while ruling out a possible abolition of the departmental level.
Responding to the serious concerns of departmental elected officials about the possible elimination of a stratum of communities, which would be that of departments, in order to simplify the territorial millefeuille, Elisabeth Borne assured that today and tomorrow, the department is an essential step for local public action.
To succeed, we must first give you the room for maneuver and the necessary means. In a word, give you the freedom to act, she added, emphasizing that this freedom is decentralization, a strength for our country, which we are ready to further accentuate.
To help the departments finance assistance for the autonomy of the elderly, Ms. Borne announced that the National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy (CNSA) would release an initial envelope of more than 150 million euros in 2024.
Your autonomy assistance expenses will be covered at least 40%, she specified, adding that these credits must first benefit the departments in difficulty.
This aid is the first step in a revaluation and modernization of the current financial compensation, whose calculation is considered obscure, and which is paid to the departments by the CNSA under the Personalized Autonomy Allowance (APA), indicated Matignon during a press briefing.
This revaluation of compensation will concern all departments by 2030, when the State will finance half of the increase in new expenditure linked to aging, expected to explode given French demographics.
The Prime Minister also announced a matching contribution by the State to the departmental safeguard fund created in 2020 to cope with a sudden deterioration in their finances.
The State would add between 53 and 55 million euros, or in total more than 100 million if we add the money from the departments.
Around fifteen departments would be eligible. They are today in the red due to the explosion in their social spending and the fall in tax revenue correlated with the real estate market.
Another highly anticipated subject is the financing of Child Welfare Assistance (ASE), which is expected to cost an additional 500 million euros this year due to the massive arrival of isolated foreign minors known as unaccompanied minors (UMAs).
In response, Ms Borne wants to increase state aid by around a third to reach the sum of 100 million euros.
Finally, the Prime Minister wishes to continue the dialogue with the departments started a year ago, by strengthening the consultation bodies on the question of finances, child protection and the fire brigade.