The Minister of Public Accounts assured Wednesday January 15 that she wanted to reduce the expenditure allocated to these organizations to complete the 2025 budget.
Government is desperate for savings. To complete its 2025 budget, the executive wants to reduce spending by more than “30 billion euros”, according to the words of Amélie de Montchalin. Questioned on TF1 this Wednesday, January 15, the Minister of Public Accounts particularly targeted state agencies. “We have 1000 public agencies in the country, it’s too many,” she declared. Minus 5% on the expenses of all these agencies, that’s more than 2 billion euros in savings”added the minister.
In his general policy speech delivered before the National Assembly on Tuesday January 14, François Bayrou also mentioned “significant savings”without going into details. The Prime Minister did mention to the deputies of a “public action reform movement”which would involve a reduction in the number and funding of state agencies and operators, including regional health agencies, Business France and the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). And for good reason, the financing of these public service organizations costs the State more than 80 billion euros for the operators alone in 2024, according to Bercy.
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The idea is not new. Michel Barnier had already issued it in his own general policy declaration. Last March, Bruno Le Maire wrote to the 438 state operators (Pôle emploi, CNRS, CNC, Business France, etc.) to clarify what he expected of them. The former tenant of Bercy notably recommended efforts on their operating expenses or payroll, leaving the threat of a sharp cut coming from the ministry. “We will decide for you”he told state operators.
The government is not the only one wanting to cut these budgets. At the microphone of France Inter this Monday morning, January 13, the president of the Île de France Region Valérie Pécresse put forward the idea of purely and simply eliminating one of the agencies, Ademe. “The problem is that almost all the projects financed by Ademe are also financed by the Banque des Territoires and by the regions. That means that there are three administrations working on the same projects, that means that we are issuing the same instructions three times.”she detailed, calling for the agency's budgets to be reallocated to the regions. Comments which provoked a vigorous reaction from the Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
In October 2023, the National Rally also went through its inventory citing 80 agencies and operators to be removed. This inventory included in particular the General Controller of places of deprivation of liberty, the Energy Regulation Commission, the National Commission for Public Debate, the French Anti-Doping Agency, and even Arcep, responsible for regulating telecoms. On the operator side, the RN also wanted to see the disappearance of Ademe but also the national parks, the National Housing Agency, the French Office for Biodiversity or the French Office for Immigration and Integration. For their part, François Bayrou and Amélie de Montchalin did not precisely designate their target. “Each minister, you will see in the Senate every day, will announce within his scope the agencies that he will merge, that he will eliminate”warned the Minister of Public Accounts.
