The use of meal vouchers for food shopping extended until 2026

Pasta, butter, flour, purchased with “restaurant vouchers” at the supermarket: this possibility, granted as an exception since Covid to support purchasing power, has been extended until the end of 2026 by the Parliament, the government promising reform to modernize the system quickly.

After the National Assembly at the end of 2024, the Upper House very largely adopted, by show of hands, this bill aimed at extending the use of meal vouchers for food shopping at the supermarket.

This text was to be examined in mid-December in the Senate if Michel Barnier's government had not been overthrown. But censorship pushed back the debate. Consequence: since 1^is January 2025, it is no longer possible to buy food products that need to be prepared in the supermarket, unlike directly consumable products such as sandwiches or salads.

Hence the need to legislate quickly to restore this exemption. And the High Assembly did so, taking care to adopt the text in the same terms as the deputies, which puts an end to the parliamentary process and will allow rapid promulgation.

“It seems to me that we have here a welcome measure of simplification, extremely popular and entirely logical”affirmed the Minister Delegate in charge of Trade, Véronique Louwagie, satisfied with this definitive adoption which will make it possible to put “end as quickly as possible to the situation of uncertainty and embarrassment that consumers are experiencing today”.

” Emergency “

The debates revolved a lot around the duration of this exemption: should it be extended until the end of 2025? the end of 2026? The National Assembly opted for a two-year extension. But, in committee, the Senate, dominated by the right, had proposed limiting it to one year, calling for an in-depth reform of the “restaurant ticket” by the end of 2025 to adapt it to the evolution of uses, linked in particular to the development of teleworking; while taking into account the opinion of restaurateurs, who are opposed to this enlargement.

Finally, pressed by the emergency, the senators agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to align themselves with the version of the National Assembly. “If we choose a different date for the Assembly, we will leave on a legislative shuttle… Whereas, if we vote for a compliant text, we will be able to open the file in depth tomorrow with a view to reform”justified centrist Nadia Sollogoub to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The rapporteur (Les Républicains) Marie-Do Aeschlimann recognized that “urgency prevails[ait] on principle »calling for this deadline to “don’t slow down the reform” meal voucher desired by many stakeholders and parliamentarians.

The minister went in the same direction, calling for a rapid entry into force while giving some assurances to parliamentarians on a major reform of the “restaurant ticket”. “My objective is that we can present the broad outlines of the meal voucher reform this summer, in order to establish clear perspectives for all the stakeholders concerned with a view to effective implementation in the months that follow”she assured.

Some feared a “sustainability which does not speak its name” with this deadline retained, like the socialists, or the macronist Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. “There cannot be on the one hand work over two years and at the same time a commitment to work quickly to reform the system”he warned.