Faced with soaring energy prices, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire stressed on Wednesday that not all communities could be helped in the same way, suggesting that state support be conditional on the rigor of their budget management.



"I do not at all underestimate the difficulties" of local authorities, affirmed the Minister before the Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.

But "we cannot treat all communities the same way: you have communities that are doing well, others that are in great difficulty", added Le Maire, a few days before the start of the debates in Parliament. on the 2023 budget, during which the question of support for local authorities will probably return to the agenda.

“You also have communities that are well managed, and others that are less well managed.

When I see local authorities who have hired massively and who then come to ask the State, because they cannot meet energy bills, to pay instead of local authorities, that can pose a difficulty", put guard the number two of the government.

“Local communities are protected”

“It is good, vis-à-vis the taxpayer, to ensure the sense of responsibility of local authorities.

In this context, we are ready to help all those who are facing major difficulties, who have managed well and have no reason to pay for the current energy crisis,” Le Maire continued.

Overall, he concluded, "local authorities are protected, since 30,000 of them have access to a regulated tariff and the others benefit from a [fund of] half a billion euros which was voted by Parliament this summer".

The minister responded to the interpellation of the ecologist deputy Charles Fournier, for whom the financial situation of the departments, intermunicipalities and other municipalities is “alarming”.

The fund of half a billion “is clearly insufficient compared to the situation that communities may experience”, forced to assume the rise in energy prices and the 3.5% increase in the salaries of civil servants, insisted the elected official of Indre-et-Loire.

Local authorities are also worried about a decrease in their tax revenues, with the upcoming abolition of the contribution on the added value of companies (CVAE), which should cause them to lose 4 billion euros in 2023.

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