General view of the National Assembly during a session of questions to the government in Paris, July 18, 2023 (AFP/Archives/Geoffroy Van der Hasselt)
Last vote before the summer break: the National Assembly adopted on the night of Friday to Saturday in first reading the bill on green industry, which intends to make it possible to reindustrialize the country while promoting ecological transition.
In a sometimes overheated atmosphere, the text was approved with the support of the LR and RN by 217 votes for, 75 against and 18 abstentions, at the end of the extraordinary session in July.
The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire was pleased to “start the relocation” and the “decarbonization” of the industry, after “three decades of renunciation” according to him.
The deputies as well as the senators, who had already validated this bill in June, will try at the start of the school year to agree on a compromise version, with a view to its final adoption.
The National Assembly should resume its work in the hemicycle the last week of September, for a short extraordinary session on the public finance programming bill.
At the Luxembourg Palace, sessions will not resume until early October, after senatorial elections on September 24.
Friday, hundreds of amendments were examined at the pace at the Palais Bourbon, avoiding the deputies having to sit during the weekend on this bill for greening the industry.
In particular, the government is putting on the table a shortening of the time limits for setting up permits, and new tools to attract private savings.
Deputy LR Virginie Duby-Muller speaks at the National Assembly on February 4, 2020 in Paris (AFP/Archives/Thomas SAMSON)
If the Republicans voted for it, it was “without enthusiasm”, dropped Virginie Duby-Muller, pointing to “blind spots on training and financing” in particular, far from the very proactive policy of the American “Inflation Reduction Act”.
Same position on the side of the National Rally, where Alexandre Loubet regretted that “the mountain gives birth to a mouse”.
The left was divided between voting against (LFI and ecologists) and abstention (socialists and communists), all deploring “a missed meeting”. Liot’s independents also abstained.
– Funding questioned –
The bill sets the objective of halving the average time required to obtain authorization to open a factory, currently estimated at 17 months. The objective is to encourage projects like those of the “big five” – wind, photovoltaic, heat pumps, batteries, carbon-free hydrogen.
Socialist MP Gérard Leseul delivers a speech at the National Assembly in Paris on August 3, 2022 (AFP/Archives/Alain JOCARD)
For some projects of “major national interest”, designated by decree, an exceptional procedure is provided for, giving the hand to the State.
The executive emphasizes the mobilization of private savings, rather than public money. With a new product, the “future climate savings plan”, the executive of which expects a billion euros in collection for the green industry. It was to be open to those under 18, an age raised to 21 on Friday evening in session.
Through the voice of Gérard Leseul, the Socialists deplored with this savings plan a financing which is “not decent” in view of the issues. But the discussions slipped with Louis Boyard (LFI) on the precariousness of young people, causing some skirmishes with the presidential camp.
A label will also be created to give virtuous companies privileged access to public procurement, a “Copernican revolution” according to the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure.
Since the start of the exchanges on Monday, the deputies had made little change in the measures. In the home stretch, they adopted against the government’s opinion amendments from environmentalists and certain macronists to generalize the “say on climate”, to allow shareholders to be consulted on a company’s climate strategy.
The state will have to define a “national strategy” on the green industry for 2023-2030, the deputies voted unanimously earlier, confirming an addition from the Senate.
The rebellious Sophia Chikirou took advantage of the subject to challenge Mr. Lescure on the recent purchase of a gas boiler by the Elysée, saying she was “shocked”.
But it was to replace an oil-fired boiler and it “will only work 20 to 30% of the time when the heat pump that has been installed will not be enough”, retorted the minister, assuring that “the Elysée is green”.
Without resentment, the minister wished the parliamentarians “happy holidays” overnight: after a year of bitter battles, “you have well deserved them”.
© 2023 AFP
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