As the chairman of the National Assembly’s finance committee recalled on BFMTV on Sunday 15 September, he is demanding, together with the general budget rapporteur, that documents setting out the appropriations for each ministry be obtained before Monday evening.
Eric Coquerel (LFI) and Charles de Courson (Liot) are keeping up the pressure. A few days after sending a letter to the new Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, to ask him to communicate all the “ceiling letters”, the president of the finance committee of the National Assembly and the general rapporteur of the budget have still not received anything. “We parliamentarians have not received anything that allows us to work, but the ministries have received these ceiling letters, which at this stage offer them 15 billion in savings, and Bruno Le Maire [le ministre de l’Économie et des Finances démissionnaire, ndlr] thinks it will take more”indicated the deputy of Seine-Saint-Denis this Sunday, September 15 on BFM TV.
And the LFI representative issued an ultimatum: “With Charles de Courson, if we don’t have the ceiling letters tomorrow evening, we will go to Matignon to get them.” The latter were sent on August 20 by Bruno Le Maire to the ministers. They were not included in the boxes of budget documents that the two elected officials received last week.
Desideratas
The ceiling letters are indeed a key element of the budgetary process. Normally, during the months of June and July, Bercy sends a framework document with its assumptions by ministry – the “positions” of Bercy – while the latter transmit their wishes to Matignon. The head of government then discusses with each minister and then decides on the distribution. And sends them these ceiling letters, which include the payment credits allocated by mission and by program and the total envelope. These amounts are in principle no longer negotiable, the ministers can only refine their use. Except that this time, dissolution of June 9 requires, the negotiations of June-July did not take place. Bercy simply transmitted its “positions” which provide for a reduction in State spending.
