An agreement has been concluded between the Assembly and the Senate. The 2024 2030 military programming law will therefore be able to be adopted before July 14, as the Head of State Emmanuel Macron hoped, after a vote of the two chambers on Wednesday and Thursday. “But we haven’t gone far from the clash,” sighed a parliamentarian, on Monday leaving the joint joint committee. The meeting lasted almost six hours to arrive at a common text. If this had not been the case, a second reading would have been necessary.
The majority of the Senate had profoundly modified the text adopted by the deputies. To avoid political failure, the government finally moved the budget lines, without touching the overall envelope: 400 billion euros in credits and 13 billion euros in extra-budgetary revenue. The “steps”, i.e. the annual increase in budgets, have been increased to accelerate the increase. They will be 3.3 billion euros for the first two years, then 3.2 billion euros for the following two years, then 3.5 billion euros between 2028 and 2030.
The additional credits will be allocated to operational readiness. The major capability programs have not been modified. The elected officials also agreed to allow the savings of the booklet A to be directed towards the financing of defense companies, without touching the loans intended for housing.
For the Head of State, who is taking part in the NATO summit on Tuesday and Wednesday, the adoption of the LPM is a relief. It will be able to present its partners with a roadmap that brings the budget devoted to defense more quickly to the threshold of 2% of GDP. It also allows him to garner political success a few months after the difficult sequence of pension reform. The Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu soberly praised “the commitment of parliamentarians”.
