The high court affirms “that no constitutional requirement was disregarded during the implementation of the procedure provided for by the third paragraph of article 49 of the Constitution.”
The Constitutional Council validated this Thursday the essentials of the government’s finance law for 2023, and in particular the methods of use of article 49-3 of the constitution, attacked by certain deputies.
Article 49-3 allows the government to have a legislative text adopted without a vote by engaging its responsibility. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has used this procedure ten times for the 2023 finance law, which can be used unlimitedly in budgetary matters.
The applicant deputies had considered it unconstitutional to engage “the responsibility of the government before the National Assembly on the vote of the first and then the second part” of the draft budget, arguing that “the constitution would impose to exercise this prerogative on the vote of the entire project”, recalls the Council in its decision.
The Constitutional Council rejects seven measures
The Constitutional Council decided that the right of amendment of parliamentarians had been respected, rejecting the referral of deputies who considered that amendments would not have “been treated” nor “registered on the agenda”.
Finally, the high court declared the 2023 budget sincere, dismissing the grievances of deputies who questioned the government’s economic forecasts on the basis of the reservations expressed by the High Council of Public Finances in its opinion of 21 September.
The Constitutional Council ruled in particular that the 1% growth forecast for the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023 on which the budget is based is not tainted “with an intention to distort the main lines of the balance of the budget law.
The High Court nonetheless excluded seven articles from the text on the grounds that their purpose is not of a budgetary nature.
Is rejected article 82 which wanted to introduce a new article in the customs code providing that the judicial authority communicates to the customs administration any information that it collects” as well as article 98 which authorized the government to modify by ordinance “the framework applicable to the conduct of inspection operations of goods, means of transport and persons” by the same customs.
Article 143 establishing a transport financing conference in Île-de-France is also censured. Tuesday, the Constitutional Council had already validated most of the Social Security budget for 2023, except for the dereimbursement of certain work stoppages prescribed by teleconsultation.
