Public Accounts Minister Thomas Cazenave welcomed “very concrete progress” on Tuesday evening following discussions in Bercy with around twenty parliamentarians from the majority and the opposition around the draft budget for 2024.
For me, we have made very concrete progress even if there is no general consensus among all the groups on all subjects, declared Mr. Cazenave to AFP and to the newspaper Le Monde.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne recently raised the possibility of pushing through the budget by activating article 49 paragraph 3 of the Constitution, as for the 2023 budget.
It is not because there will be no agreement to vote on the budget that we should not try to work together on subjects which, for a moment, can bring us together, added the minister.
Ecological transition, tax justice and the fight against fraud as well as the question of housing were on the menu of this second meeting of the Bercy Dialogues – an initiative launched in 2022 to present the broad outlines of budgetary texts to parliamentarians earlier than before.
On the ecological transition, the minister said he was open to working on the green budgets of local authorities, the concept of green debt and a multi-annual vision of financing the ecological transition.
I indicated that I agreed that we would move forward on these subjects, which we could put (in the text) by way of amendment, indicated Mr. Cazenave.
The opening of the zero-rate eco-loan for co-ownerships was also discussed.
On tax justice, the minister indicated that he had proposed a working group on the transposition of pillar two of the OECD from businesses to individuals, particularly the wealthiest.
In October 2021, common ground was found on the creation of a global minimum tax of 15% on the profits of multinationals, pillar two of the OECD reform, in the process of being applied by around fifty of states.
The taxation of furnished accommodation such as Airbnb, which today benefits from a more favorable tax regime than accommodation rented for longer periods, was also at the heart of discussions on Tuesday. The minister said he was prepared to work on revising the system.