General view of the National Assembly, June 27, 2023 in Paris (AFP / Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT)
“Turn” for economy or “empty” text? The green industry bill, aimed at stimulating a carbon-free reindustrialization of the country, is being examined from Monday afternoon at first reading by the National Assembly, after its broad adoption in the Senate.
The deputies will seize in the hemicycle of the last big piece on their program before the summer break. An emblematic text for the executive, which has made industrial reconquest a priority battle after the pension crisis.
It “constitutes a real turning point for our economy” after an “era of massive deindustrialization”, pleaded the Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure, in committee.
To stimulate projects like those of the “Big five” – wind, photovoltaic, heat pump, batteries, carbon-free hydrogen – the government is notably putting on the table shortened deadlines for installation permits and new tools to attract savings. private.
Part of the measures focus on the mobilization of land with “radical measures” according to the executive, which has promised to make 50 depolluted sites available to industry.
– “Climate savings” for minors –
By simplifying and accelerating procedures, the bill sets the objective of halving the average time required to obtain authorization to open a factory, currently estimated at 17 months.
The Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire and the Minister Delegate for Industry Roland Lescure leave the meeting of the Council of Ministers on March 22, 2023 in Paris (AFP/Archives/Ludovic MARIN)
For some projects of “major national interest”, designated by decree, an exceptional procedure is provided for, giving the hand to the State.
Rather than public money, the executive emphasizes the mobilization of private savings. With a new product for those under 18, the “future climate savings plan”, the executive of which expects a billion euros in collection for the green industry.
By also mobilizing more retirement savings plans and life insurance, he hopes for a total of 5 billion in private savings.
A label would also be created to give virtuous companies privileged access to public procurement.
In the Senate with a right-wing majority, the text had been reworked to involve communities more, in particular on industrial projects “of major national interest”.
Worried about seeing the procedures slowed down, the government and the deputies of the presidential camp have rectified the situation by amendments in committee.
The principle of a “conform opinion” of the communities at the end of the procedure to be able to modify town planning documents, introduced by the senators, has thus been replaced by an agreement to be given upstream.
– “Holes in the racket” –
The deputies also deleted in committee an article introduced by the Senate which excluded projects stamped “green industry” from the binding limits of artificial land.
The fate was the same for an article requiring the state to develop a “national strategy” for green industry until 2030, which had also been added to the Senate.
Deputy LR Virginie Duby-Muller speaks at the National Assembly on November 5, 2019 in Paris (AFP/Archives/Thomas SAMSON)
To the great regret of opposition, tax and financial measures, such as the creation of a tax credit to support “green” projects, have been postponed to the next finance law.
“There are measures that are rather going in the right direction,” said MP LR Virginie Duby-Muller, while deploring “holes in the racket”.
The right criticizes the bill in particular for focusing too much on the “Big five”. “Why not expand?” asks Ms. Duby-Muller, who would also have liked the issue of imports to be addressed.
At the National Rally, deputy Alexandre Loubet mocks a “mountain (which) gives birth to a mouse” and a “sprinkling of scoops”.
The left also points to a lack of ambition. The text is “so empty”, according to the Insoumise Alma Dufour, that it cannot even be amended” with proposals from industrial workers. It translates a “liberal vision” and “stunted”, for the communist Sébastien Twin.
The objective is to “attract foreign investment in exchange for tax gifts or even reduced environmental vigilance”, tackles the socialist Gérard Leseul.
According to ecologist Charles Fournier, this text does not deserve the qualifier “green”, because it does not raise the question of “our needs with regard to planetary limits”.
To complete the examination of the bill, weighted with nearly 1,600 amendments, sitting days were added on Saturday July 22 and Sunday July 23, postponing the summer break for deputies.
© 2023 AFP
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