Paris (AFP)
The National Assembly gave unanimous approval on Thursday to the opening of new bars in the countryside, via the re-circulation of licenses IV, with a view to "rural revitalization".
The deputies adopted a government amendment to this effect to the draft law on the life of mayors, examined at first reading.
The amendment provides that for three years, a license IV may be created by declaration to the mayor, in municipalities with less than 3,500 inhabitants currently do not. This license can not then be transferred beyond the intercommunal concerned.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced in September these "revitalization licenses", among dozens of other provisions in the context of the "rural agenda".
The amendment also provides for a return to a mainly departmental framework for IV license transfers in general, and no longer a regional framework, which has led to emptying the less attractive territories of their licenses.
These measures are "long awaited" and resulting from a "long multidisciplinary work", defended in the hemicycle the Minister of Communities Sébastien Lecornu.
"This is not only a question of economic development but of social link, of intergenerational link", underlined Daniel Labaronne (LREM), reminding that the IV licenses went from 200.000 in the years 60 to 40.000 today, concentrated in the big cities. Several MPs, from LR at UDI-Agir, also intervened in support.
The Assembly has also adopted an amendment LR which reinforces the power of mayors in matters of administrative fine, in case of non-compliance with schedules prohibition of sale of alcohol to take away provided by the municipality. The mayor will now be able to impose an administrative fine of 500 euros (against 38 euros until then).
Thursday the main employers' union of the hotel and restaurant industry, the Umih, welcomed the vote of this amendment, "result of a fruitful work for more than two years" between his organization and the Interministerial Mission of Fight against Drugs and Addictive Conduct (MILDECA) ".
This joint work focuses on the "implementation of the global action plan against drugs for young people, as part of the revision of the Public Health Code," said a statement.
© 2019 AFP