What's in France's new 'simplification' law?
The simplification bill was finally passed in the Assemblée nationale on Tuesday.
The headline-grabber in the bill was an amendment to scrap the Low Emissions Zones in French cities - although that might still be open to challenge.
READ ALSO
Is this the end of France's Crit'Air zones for drivers?
But there's a lot more in this bill, which has had a complicated life -
introduced by Gabriel Attal's government last year and halted first by last summer's snap election, then the collapse of Michel Barnier government, it has had hundreds of amendments added and subtracted during its lengthy parliamentary journey.
The bill contains 26 main measures intended to cut bureaucracy, and simplify administration, mostly aimed at businesses. It is based on a parliamentary report from February 2024 and was presented with an action plan that includes 26 other regulatory measures.
Administration and and business life
Governments can use decrees and ordinances to simplify administrative procedures and cut down the number of forms and procedures that businesses have to follow. More operations will be digitised, while the bill provides several policies to improve information sharing between government departments to reduce unnecessary duplication for businesses.
Advertisement
The government will also have to examine how future legislation might impact small and medium-sized businesses when bills are drafted. This should avoid brouhahas similar to the proposal to introduce lower
VAT limits on micro-entrepreneurs
.
Under the terms of the bill, by 2028 all public procurement contracts – including those from hospitals and social security organisations – will be handled through a single online platform to give businesses better access to necessary public procurement information.
To make it easier to sell companies with fewer than 50 employees, the legal period for employers to inform employees has been reduced to one month and the fine for failure to provide information has been reduced.
And professional bank account services will also be improved, including the ability to close an account without charge.
In terms of insurance, with regard to property damage, the draft law sets limits on the timeframes for compensating individual and professional policyholders at six months maximum from the date of the claim in cases where an expert is appointed, and two months in almost all other cases.
In addition, it extends the obligation for insurers to justify their decision to unilaterally terminate business insurance contracts, and gives very small businesses and SMEs the right to terminate property insurance at any time after the first anniversary of the contract.
Industrial and infrastructure projects
To encourage the establishment of factories or energy transition projects, exemptions from common law are provided for in various areas, such as the installation of wind turbines or relay antennas, and compensation for damage to biodiversity caused by development projects, particularly industrial projects.
Advertisement
An amendment by the government will make it possible to recognise the imperative reason of major public interest much earlier in the development of projects, and supplemented to allow the recognition of the public interest status for projects that have already been declared – including the
controversial A69 autoroute
in south-west France.
The bill provides, under certain conditions, for industrial-scale data centres to be classified as projects of major national interest, to speed up planning processes.
The mandate of the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties is also amended to take into account innovation issues in all areas of its work.
Payslips
Future payslips will be simplified under the remit of the bill to contain just 15 lines of information. Details about restaurant tickets and travel expenses will be available separately, but precise details have yet to be confirmed.
READ ALSO
:
How to understand your French payslip✎
Advertisement
Rural cafés
The bill includes measures to make it easier to open cafés and bars in rural areas by making it simpler to get a type four alcohol licence, known as a Licence IV, which covers spirits and liquor.
READ ALSO
France moves to bring back village bars in bid to boost rural social lives
Government mediation
The bill includes measures to make complaints against the French administration system easier, with a 'generalisation' of mediation, while current deadlines in place on taking legal action against the government will be put on hold.
Small businesses, micro-entrepreneurs and employees will certainly cheer several measures intended to make their daily lives easier, and the
'tell us once' policy that cuts out the duplication of required information will speed up certain processes, but at this stage it is difficult to judge how much simply life might become.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
6 hours ago
- LeMonde
France planning European 'initiative' to end Iran-Israel conflict, says presidency
France is planning along with European partners to suggest a negotiated solution to end the conflict between Iran and Israel, President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Wednesday, June 18. At a national security council meeting, Macron ordered Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot to draw up in the coming days "an initiative with close European partners that would propose a demanding negotiated settlement to put an end to the conflict," the presidency said in a statement, without giving details on the nature of the plan. Barrot has been in regular touch with his German and British counterparts since Israel launched massive air strikes against Iran on Friday. All three countries were involved in talks that led to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for relief from sanctions. The United States withdrew from that accord during President Donald Trump's first term. Macron also urged Israel to end strikes on targets in Iran not linked to nuclear activities or ballistic missiles. He voiced "concern over the current escalation, with Israeli strikes increasingly hitting targets not linked to Iran's nuclear or ballistic program, and a mounting number of civilian victims in Iran and Israel," his office said. He said it was "necessary to urgently end these military operations, which pose significant threats to regional security," it added. The French president also urged the Foreign Ministry to take measures to help French citizens leave Israel or Iran if they wished to do so, the Elysée added, without providing further details.
Local France
8 hours ago
- Local France
What's in France's new 'simplification' law?
The simplification bill was finally passed in the Assemblée nationale on Tuesday. The headline-grabber in the bill was an amendment to scrap the Low Emissions Zones in French cities - although that might still be open to challenge. READ ALSO Is this the end of France's Crit'Air zones for drivers? But there's a lot more in this bill, which has had a complicated life - introduced by Gabriel Attal's government last year and halted first by last summer's snap election, then the collapse of Michel Barnier government, it has had hundreds of amendments added and subtracted during its lengthy parliamentary journey. The bill contains 26 main measures intended to cut bureaucracy, and simplify administration, mostly aimed at businesses. It is based on a parliamentary report from February 2024 and was presented with an action plan that includes 26 other regulatory measures. Administration and and business life Governments can use decrees and ordinances to simplify administrative procedures and cut down the number of forms and procedures that businesses have to follow. More operations will be digitised, while the bill provides several policies to improve information sharing between government departments to reduce unnecessary duplication for businesses. Advertisement The government will also have to examine how future legislation might impact small and medium-sized businesses when bills are drafted. This should avoid brouhahas similar to the proposal to introduce lower VAT limits on micro-entrepreneurs . Under the terms of the bill, by 2028 all public procurement contracts – including those from hospitals and social security organisations – will be handled through a single online platform to give businesses better access to necessary public procurement information. To make it easier to sell companies with fewer than 50 employees, the legal period for employers to inform employees has been reduced to one month and the fine for failure to provide information has been reduced. And professional bank account services will also be improved, including the ability to close an account without charge. In terms of insurance, with regard to property damage, the draft law sets limits on the timeframes for compensating individual and professional policyholders at six months maximum from the date of the claim in cases where an expert is appointed, and two months in almost all other cases. In addition, it extends the obligation for insurers to justify their decision to unilaterally terminate business insurance contracts, and gives very small businesses and SMEs the right to terminate property insurance at any time after the first anniversary of the contract. Industrial and infrastructure projects To encourage the establishment of factories or energy transition projects, exemptions from common law are provided for in various areas, such as the installation of wind turbines or relay antennas, and compensation for damage to biodiversity caused by development projects, particularly industrial projects. Advertisement An amendment by the government will make it possible to recognise the imperative reason of major public interest much earlier in the development of projects, and supplemented to allow the recognition of the public interest status for projects that have already been declared – including the controversial A69 autoroute in south-west France. The bill provides, under certain conditions, for industrial-scale data centres to be classified as projects of major national interest, to speed up planning processes. The mandate of the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties is also amended to take into account innovation issues in all areas of its work. Payslips Future payslips will be simplified under the remit of the bill to contain just 15 lines of information. Details about restaurant tickets and travel expenses will be available separately, but precise details have yet to be confirmed. READ ALSO : How to understand your French payslip✎ Advertisement Rural cafés The bill includes measures to make it easier to open cafés and bars in rural areas by making it simpler to get a type four alcohol licence, known as a Licence IV, which covers spirits and liquor. READ ALSO France moves to bring back village bars in bid to boost rural social lives Government mediation The bill includes measures to make complaints against the French administration system easier, with a 'generalisation' of mediation, while current deadlines in place on taking legal action against the government will be put on hold. Small businesses, micro-entrepreneurs and employees will certainly cheer several measures intended to make their daily lives easier, and the 'tell us once' policy that cuts out the duplication of required information will speed up certain processes, but at this stage it is difficult to judge how much simply life might become.
Local France
8 hours ago
- Local France
How Paris's Seine river keeps city buildings cool in summer
Since 1991, the river water has been cooling more than 800 buildings via a humble but hard-working system that is still relatively under-utilised worldwide. Paris boasts the largest such urban cooling network in Europe: 110 kilometres of subterranean pipes criss-crossing the City of Light, reducing its need for energy-guzzling air conditioning. "It's like 'Batman'!" exclaimed a passer-by in the chic and touristy eighth arrondissement or district of Paris, as a manhole cover was removed to reveal a spiral staircase to the cooling network below. The technology is not new: the headquarters of the United Nations in New York has been using water from the East River for cooling since the 1950s. Advertisement But much planning and construction is necessary and as such, these efficient and sustainable cooling systems remain relatively rare. But in Paris, the network has grown considerably in recent years to confront more intense and frequent heatwaves, with the first of the summer forecast this coming weekend . The process works much the same as a district heating network, but in reverse: heat is transferred from the air to chilled water pumped via pipes to buildings around the city. But unlike conventional air conditioning, it does not blast hot air into the streets, according to Fraicheur de Paris, which manages the Seine cooling network and others in Barcelona, Singapore and Dubai. The company, co-owned by the French energy utility Engie, says it also offers significant savings in electricity consumption, chemical use and emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide. Heatwaves could push summer temperatures to 50C by 2050 in Paris, said Raphaelle Nayral, secretary general of Fraicheur de Paris. The city needs a more sustainable solution than air conditioning units with their associated heat and energy burden, she added. "Otherwise we will make this city completely uninhabitable," Nayral said. Studies have shown that air conditioners can increase the heat in urban centres by around 0.5C when used in large numbers, a figure that rises as more units are installed. Advertisement Air conditioning also accounts for seven percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the UN estimates. This is in part due to energy use but also leaking refrigerant gases, which are potent warming agents. For the Paris network, 12 cooling power stations pump chilled water from the Seine to 867 sites across the city, including the national parliament building. Even in winter, the river can prove useful for cooling server rooms and other technology and heat-intensive operations across the city. In the eighth district, 30 metres underground and spread over four floors, the river's water is pumped through a series of black tanks and large green pipes with a shrill din. "It's a bit like the song of the Seine," Raynal said with a smile over the whirring of compressors. Advertisement The process is subject to numerous environmental standards. To prevent damage to the Seine ecosystem, water drawn for cooling cannot be discharged back into the river if there is a difference of more than 5C (9F) between the two. Other sites served by the Paris network include department stores and offices, the train network, concert halls, and arguably the world's most famous museum, the Louvre. One hospital has been also connected, and there are hopes of extending the cooling benefit to retirement homes, schools and daycare centres across the city. "By 2042, the network should more than double, with 245 kilometres of distribution... to provide new cooling when the city is overheating," Nayral said. For individual homes, it could be a longer wait, with extensive renovations required to connect residential buildings to the network.
