On Wednesday, a joint joint committee made up of 7 deputies and 7 senators will have in its hands the future of the pension reform bill. In the past, this device had already been at the heart of parliamentary discussions.
It is therefore behind closed doors, far from cameras and social networks, that seven deputies and seven senators meet this Wednesday, as part of a joint joint committee (CMP) which will decide on the future of the pension reform. . This type of commission, provided for in article 45 of the Constitution, plans to bring together parliamentarians in the event of disagreement between the two chambers, in order to reach a compromise.
Very often unsheathed to defuse a deadlock between the Palais-Bourbon and the Palais du Luxembourg, these CMPs rarely attract attention, while two-thirds lead to an agreement, as the site of the Senate. But sometimes, because the text under discussion crystallizes the tensions that drive society, or because a deep disagreement divides deputies and senators, the veil of parliamentary meetings is lifted. Back in three dates on parliamentary committees that have marked parliamentary life.
• 2010. Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension reform
In 2010, Nicolas Sarkozy’s government decided to undertake a major pension reform, which, among a range of measures, intended to shift the minimum legal retirement age from 60 to 62, citing the negative effects of the financial crisis as justification. of 2008 on the French economy.
In first reading, the text is adopted on September 15 in the National Assembly, after seven days of debate. But it is in the Senate that things get tricky. Determined to defeat the law, the left-wing senators decide to delay the debates. After three weeks of discussions, the government decided to use the blocked vote. Arrived in public session on October 5, the text will be adopted by forceps by the upper house on October 22.
To lead to a common text, senators and deputies met in a joint committee on October 25, 2010. Dominated by the right and the center, in favor of reform, the CMP managed to agree on a common text. In the minority in the negotiations, the left had nevertheless tried to push the government of Nicolas Sarkozy to negotiate with the social partners, while France was slowed down by major demonstrations and blockages in refineries and high schools.
Marisol Touraine, at the time a socialist senator, had declared at the time to AFP that the elected representatives of the left were going to table a single amendment for the government to engage “immediately in negotiations with the social partners”. Finally, the text resulting from the CMP will be definitively adopted by the Senate on October 26, on the 27th by the National Assembly, and promulgated on November 9, 2010.
• 2020. Avia Anti-Hate Online Act
In 2019, LREM deputy Laetitia Avia tabled a bill in the National Assembly “aimed at combating hate on the internet”. Among the key measures of the text: the obligation for platforms to delete all hateful content within 24 hours, under penalty of being imposed heavy fines, which can go up to 1.25 million euros.
Immediately, this measure tenses both Republicans and Socialists, who fear that, faced with the risks they incur, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram will practice censorship at all costs to escape any prosecution.
Despite these criticisms, the National Assembly adopted the text on July 9, 2019. But in the Senate, dominated by the right, the bill was amputated from its flagship measure when it was adopted on December 17 of the same year, resulting in a joint committee convened on December 18. The latter ended in failure, senators and deputies failing to agree.
As reported Public Senate, Senator LR Christophe André Frassa had at the time considered that the text was “unfinished and not constitutionally sound”. Health crisis obliges, the second reading of the text is held a year later, in January 2020. It is the version of Laetitia Avia which is finally voted by Parliament, the National Assembly having primacy over the Senate in the event of disagreement. persisting between the two chambers.
But the real slap came from the Constitutional Council, which on June 18 had emptied the law of its content.
• 2022. The law establishing the vaccination pass
Submitted on December 27, 2021 by the government, the bill “strengthening the tools for managing the health crisis and modifying the public health code” aimed at the time to transform the health pass into a vaccination pass.
The text is adopted by the National Assembly on January 6, 2022, then by the Senate on January 12. But there are significant differences between the two chambers. At first reading, the senators want the pass to be lifted if the number of hospitalizations for Covid-19 falls below 10,000. They also oppose identity verification by restaurateurs.
A joint joint committee is convened on January 13, 2022. After four hours of discussions, the discussions are going in the right direction, and the parliamentarians are on the verge of reaching an agreement.
But while he is at a distance, Senator Les Républicains Bruno Retailleau tweets that the CMP “on the vaccine pass has agreed with the Senate, it is the victory of common sense. The senators have obtained many clarifications and simplifications” .
Result? The agreement between senators and deputies is canceled, the members of the majority considering that Bruno Retailleau has violated the principle of in camera of the joint joint commissions by revealing the content of the debates on social networks. Bruno Retailleau had admitted that “no doubt, the tweet left too quickly”, while adding that he regretted “nothing”. “It’s totally disproportionate.” The National Assembly had therefore finally had the last word on this text, promulgated on January 22, 2022.
