“I think you’ll enjoy it!” » By proposing in session the end of the High Commission for Planning (HCP), centrist senator Nathalie Goulet knew what symbolic button she was pressing on January 22. Facing the hemicycle stood the Minister responsible for Relations with Parliament, Patrick Mignola, from François Bayrou's MoDem. Since the creation of the High Commission for Planning in September 2020, the current Prime Minister was the incarnation.
Skeptical about the added value of the organization, the finance committee caused during the session the elimination of the budget of this prospective body, endowed with 1.9 million euros. “The High Commissioner today has other functions, and the High Commission is a little adrift because there is no longer a pilot on the plane at all,” explained Nathalie Goulet.
In a budgetary control report from September 2024, Senator Christopher Szczurek (RN) highlighted the “very mixed” contribution of this body, to “navigation without a compass”, whose remit affects other, older organizations, France Strategy in the lead.
The government wanted to reduce a quarter of the budget dedicated to the High Commission for Planning
In addition, the RN rapporteur considered that the organization and the “personal dimension” of its incarnation were “not very compatible” with the missions of this body. The environmental group had already criticized the HCP by calling it an “empty shell”, convening a debate on the issue less than a year ago.
-In October, Michel Barnier planned to merge France Stratégie with the High Commission for Planning. This is why the government included 0.5 million euros less in the 2025 budget this fall. “Ordering the pure and simple elimination of the budget of 1.9 million euros would go against possible investments and the financing of all these synergies,” warned Minister Patrick Mignola.
135 people (full-time equivalents) worked at France Stratégie at the end of 2023, and a budget of 23.1 million euros was dedicated last year to this structure. The HCP only has 14. François Bayrou did not, however, receive any remuneration or compensation linked to this function, he exercised it on a voluntary basis.
