Certain municipalities and intermunicipalities will visibly fall through the cracks of the “safety net” urgently set up by the government to deal with the surge in energy prices. A decree, published a few days ago and spotted by the specialized site Maire Info, definitively sets the amounts granted by the State to eligible communities under this special aid.
As a reminder, last year, the government put on the table a fund of 430 million euros to financially support municipalities and intermunicipalities in meeting the costs generated by the rise in the price of energy and the increase in index point of civil servants. At the time, the majority claimed that this system would concern more than 20,000 municipalities (out of the approximately 35,000 in the country), before halving its first forecast. Finally, the decree confirms that only 6,500 communities were “concerned” by the system, more than half of which (3,400) are ultimately not eligible and will have to reimburse the deposit then paid by the State. Indeed, to receive this aid, the municipalities had to meet certain technical cash flow criteria as to the level of savings of the community in relation to its expenses or as to the impact of the increase in prices and the index point on said savings, for example. Among these losing municipalities or intermunicipalities, 7 will have to reimburse sums exceeding 1 million euros, such as the town halls of Sarcelles, Grenoble and Nanterre. The city of Nice and its metropolis will have to pay more than 6 million euros to the State.
For eligible municipalities, the amount of aid amounts to more than 400 million euros with obviously huge differences between small municipalities (La Fontenelle in Loir-et-Cher was, for example, allocated an allocation of 1065 euros) and large metropolises (9.1 million euros for Lille). In total, according to this document, around 80 communities have received or will receive more than one million euros as a result of this aid. For some of them – those who did not request a deposit last year – this grant from the State will represent a financial windfall. This is the case not only of Lille, but also of Evry-Courcouronnes and Rennes, two cities which will be allocated more than 4 million euros this year.
