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Ecology, employment and higher education are the expenditure areas hardest hit by the savings measures announced by Bruno Le Maire. But proportionately, international aid and youth also suffer.
The ax has fallen, at least in part. The budget cuts of 10 billion euros announced by Bruno Le Maire, due to a lower-than-expected growth forecast for 2024, were specified in a decree published in the Official Journal on Thursday February 22. If the efforts target all ministries, with postponements of hiring or reductions in purchasing invoices, the decree lists the reductions in resources according to each expenditure item concerned. Which missions are most affected by this savings plan? Are certain state activities doing more or worse than others?
Among all expenditure items, ecology is one of the hardest hit by budget cuts. The item “Ecology, sustainable development and mobility” sees its commitment authorizations cut by 2.13 billion euros, or nearly 9% of what was allocated to it in the 2024 finance law. In detail, it is the “Energy, climate and post-mining” sub-item which is the hardest affected with 950 million euros less. The Fund for accelerating the ecological transition in the territories has also been cut by 500 million euros, with Bercy citing “project postponements”.
Questioned by franceinfo, the Ministry of Ecological Transition has not yet responded to our requests. However, “the government is in no way renouncing its ambitions in terms of ecological transition”promises Bercy, who underlines that the ministry’s budget is up by 8 billion compared to 2023 and that the credits allocated to Ma Prime Rénov’ increase by 800 million euros compared to last year.
Concrete consequences still to be defined
In absolute value, the missions which suffer the biggest budget cuts are then work and employment, with 1.1 billion euros, and research and higher education, with 904 million euros. Contacted by franceinfo, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research explains that these cuts will mainly go through “postponements of multi-year real estate projects, investments or research equipment, and an adjustment to calls for projects”.
But the cuts announced for certain expenditure items are even greater, in proportion to what was initially to be allocated to them. Public development assistance is the most affected, with a drop of 742 million euros, or 11% of its budget provided for by the 2024 finance law. Here too, Bercy mentions “international project postponements”without further details at the moment.
Next comes the “Sport, youth and community life” item, with 180 million euros removed from an initial budget of 1.719 billion, a drop of 10%. The “Immigration, asylum and integration” item also lost nearly 10% of its budget, 174 million euros out of 1.764 billion planned. Asked about the activities concretely affected by these cuts, the ministries concerned told franceinfo that they had nothing to communicate at the moment.
Some positions relatively spared
Other expenditure items, on the contrary, have escaped massive cuts. This is for example the case of the “Security” position, which includes the police and the gendarmerie, and which loses 232 million euros out of the 25 billion initially planned (-0.91%). The “Solidarity, integration and equal opportunities” item, which notably includes gender equality and disability management, lost 307 million euros out of 31 billion (-0.99%).
Another example, the item “School education”, which includes first and second level public education as well as technical agricultural education and “student life”, is cut by 691 million from a budget of 87 billion ( -0.79%). Bercy affirms that these cuts will not involve any job cuts and mainly target spending reserves from last year which were not carried out (for example recruitments which were not completed).
Bercy finally justifies this distribution of budget cuts by a balance between political arbitration and technical opportunity. Certain areas are relatively little affected due to the context (such as defense). he is also “easier to slow down an upward dynamic than to lower a budget”specifies the ministry to defend the cuts in the new credits devoted to ecology.
However, the concrete impact of these cuts is still unclear. Five billion savings out of the 10 will be made on certain specific policies (such as Ma Prime Rénov’), but the remaining 5 billion must still be found by the ministries themselves based on the figures in the decree. The ministries must specify these terms within a fortnight, according to Bercy.