The Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire (left), and that of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, leaving the council of ministers, on the steps of the Elysée, in Paris, May 3, 2024 (AFP/Archives/Miguel MEDINA)
The Ministry of Ecological Transition, already cut by two billion euros from its budget in February, risks losing at least an additional billion while Bercy prepares a new blow to reduce the public deficit, AFP learned on Tuesday from government sources.
The exact amount, which is currently between 1 and 1.4 billion euros, is still under negotiation between Bercy and the Ministry of Ecological Transition, according to this source.
In the office of Christophe Béchu, the Minister of Ecological Transition, we do not confirm the order of magnitude, but we assure that the amount will be “much lower” than the previous effort, of more than 2 billion.
Bercy told AFP that work on savings options “was still in progress” and “that no arbitration had been made” for the moment.
The state of public finances – the public deficit reached 5.5% of GDP in 2023, against a backdrop of slowed growth – led in February to an initial announcement of 10 billion euros in savings on the state budget in 2024.
The budget allocated to the various expenses of the ecological transition, elevated in September to the rank of “absolute priority”, had then been lost around 2 billion euros, out of the 7 billion increase initially obtained for 2024.
By announcing that the deficit would still be 5.1% this year, instead of the 4.4% hoped for, Bercy announced at the beginning of April a new effort of ten billion euros.
Five billion will be taken from the seven billion in precautionary reserves of the ministries, detailed the Minister of Public Accounts Thomas Cazenave in mid-April.
Furthermore, 2.5 billion are expected from the efforts of local authorities and the rest must come in particular from the result of the work of four deputies on the “taxation of rents”, targeting in particular energy companies and share buybacks, indicated The Minister.
The Notre Affaire à Tous association and the Lyon 3 University appealed to the Council of State to contest the first cuts made in February, asserting that they “should have been the subject of a parliamentary debate”.
Notre Affaire à Tous denounces in particular that environmental protection and ecological transition constitute “the mission most quantitatively affected by credit cancellations”.
“Among the most affected programs, the MaPrimeRénov’ program is targeted by the government to the tune of approximately 1 billion euros,” criticized the association.
© 2024 AFP
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