New episode in the saga of the Livret A(rme). A bill aimed at using part of the savings collected in the Livret A to finance small and medium-sized businesses in the defense industry was adopted in the Senate.
The Senate adopted at first reading this Tuesday, March 5, the bill relating to the financing of companies in the French defense industry, presented by Pascal Allizard. This proposal provides to allocate part of the savings collected in the Livret A and the sustainable and united development booklet (LDDS) towards SMEs in the French defense industry.
The Senate, however, modified the text and notably specified that this new signage should not not drive decrease the shares of resources collected under Livret A and LDDS today allocated to financing the energy transition and the social and solidarity economy. Nearly 60% of the Livret A and LDSS funds are in fact dedicated to social housing, but the rest – non-centralized savings precisely targeted by the text – is dedicated to SMEs, the energy transition or even the social economy and united.
A similar measure had already been adopted in Parliament in recent months, but the Constitutional Council had censored it twice, judging it to be unrelated to the texts to which it had been added.
Savings: The Livret A to finance defense, the subject is back on track
Draw from Livret A? The measure is not unanimous
On Franceinfo in November, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, explained that he preferred the creation of a new savings product dedicated to defense: The Livret A, for me, is social housing, it must be stay, he added. Yesterday, in the Senate, the Minister for Business, Olivia Grégoire, made a similar statement, believing that the instrument [n’tait] not the most appropriate.
The Minister of the Economy is not the only one reluctant. According to a survey carried out by the Yougov institute for MoneyVox, the majority of French people (54% exactly) are not in favor of this measure. Only 29% of those questioned (29%) are in favor of using part of regulated savings to support defense.
Another bill carried by PS senator from Val d’Oise Rachid Temal and eight other socialist senators was tabled in the Senate on February 20. It aims to create a new dedicated savings product, the sovereignt defense savings account (LEDS), which would be used exclusively to finance defense. But the Senate has already rejected this avenue.
The A(rme) Livret saga seems far from over… Olivia Grégoire promised senators that Bercy would bring together financial players, investors and defense industrialists in the summer for a major event on the financing of the sector.
Booklet A, LDDS: French savings will not finance Defense companies