The National Assembly adopted this Thursday at first reading a series of measures to strengthen mobility aids for Ultramarines, in particular working people and parents forced to travel to France to treat a child.
The bill, led by the independent group Liot (Liberties, Independents, Overseas Territories and Territories), was adopted unanimously, with the support of all the political groups and the government. It must now be considered by the Senate.
“Overseas households are being taken by the throat by the cost of transport which continues to increase”, argued MP Liot from Guadeloupe Olivier Serva, rapporteur for the text, also citing the precariousness which “is gaining ground with rapidity greater than in France”.
“While the Corsicans benefit from budgetary support for territorial continuity of 257 euros per inhabitant”, the overseas territories “benefit from approximately 90 euros per inhabitant”, he lamented, other deputies citing amounts lower for Ultramarines.
“Help for territorial continuation”
The adopted text is aimed in particular at “territorial continuity assistance” schemes, which already finance part of the transport tickets for job seekers or students. It plans to extend them to overseas workers wishing to follow training in France.
The system would also be extended to workers living in mainland France and having a professional project in Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, Mayotte, Reunion, Saint-Martin, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Pierre-et- Miquelon, Wallis-et-Futuna, French Polynesia or New Caledonia. The criteria and amounts of the various aids are referred to a future ministerial decree.
Not “second-class French”
“Through this text, the government has the opportunity to tell the inhabitants of overseas that they are not second-class French people”, estimated the deputy of Guyana Davy Rimane (communist group), addressing to the Minister Delegate for Overseas Jean-François Carenco.
Another measure concerns the mobility of parents residing in an overseas territory? sea, or in Corsica, forced to go to France for the care of a child. It provides for the possibility of combining the daily parental attendance allowance with the supplement and increase in the education allowance for disabled children, and no longer just with its basic amount.
The bill was examined within the framework of a parliamentary niche of the Liot group, a day reserved for texts of its choice.