Taxation, water, education, disability, housing… And above all purchasing power. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced on Tuesday an inventory of very varied measures aimed at improving daily life in the French overseas territories. Accompanied by several ministers, the head of government presented a plan of 70 measures at the end of an Interministerial Overseas Committee (CIOM).
“We want our overseas compatriots to live better, and to see changes, quickly,” she told the press in the presence of several of her ministers. The most sensitive issues – institutions, immigration and security – were not discussed at this meeting.
2.3 billion euros of investments
Among the decisions announced, a future “in-depth” reform of dock dues, tariff protection on products imported into the overseas territories. “The dock dues contribute to the high cost of living overseas”, declared the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, who promised that the reform of this system would be “fully adopted and implemented no later than 2027”.
The cost of living is higher overseas than in France, particularly because of food prices, according to a recent INSEE study. Elisabeth Borne also announced 2.3 billion euros in investments over four years (2024-2027) for infrastructure and public services, compared to 1.8 billion between 2019 and 2022.
The price of frozen bottled water
These investments will be used “primarily to finance water and sanitation networks, transport infrastructure and schools”, according to the Prime Minister, access to water being, in several overseas communities, hampered by the dilapidated state of the networks.
The decree freezing the prices of bottled water in Mayotte, eagerly awaited on the Indian Ocean island plagued by a water crisis, “will be published tomorrow”, she announced, promising by elsewhere “to relaunch the development of a bill specific to Mayotte”. Indeed, the prefecture of the island announced last week an intensification of water cuts, up to one per day for the most densely populated municipalities. Since Monday, Mamoudzou, Koungou, Dzaoudzi-Labattoir and Pamandzi will suffer seven “night” cuts per week, from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next morning. The other 13 cities in the French department of the Indian Ocean will have to deal with three “water towers” of 24 hours a week, from 4 p.m. to 4 p.m. the next day.
A “catch-up plan”, of 150 million euros over four years, will be initiated for the medico-social support of people with disabilities, she added. The government has also undertaken to increase student scholarships overseas, by 30 euros per month, and that more ultramarines – three out of four – become eligible for aid for territorial continuity, which allows have plane tickets at reduced prices.