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Means
From the viewpoint of its administrative organisation, the National Assembly — like the Senate moreover — differentiates itself by implementing what forms the principle of the autonomy of parliamentary assemblies. This is based on the principle of the separation of powers and results in financial and administrative regimes which are quite singular even if this is tending progressively to diminish. Referring to material means, and particularly the use of data processing and new communication techniques, the approach is resolutely innovative.
The National Assembly‘s financial regime is defined in Article 7 of ordinance no. 58-1100 of 17 November 1958 on the functioning of the parliamentary assemblies. Its first paragraph confirms the traditional principle of the financial autonomy of each assembly. Although the assemblies do not have legal personality, their financial operations do not come under ordinary law. The management of the appropriation included in the Finance Act (common costs budget) escapes, once paid, the general rules of public accounting (decree no. 62-1587 of 29 December 1962). The assemblies manage their budget as they see fit and do not come under the jurisdiction of the Audit Court. There is no a priori control of the fairness of accounts exercised by an official coming hierarchically under the Minister for the Budget. The National Assembly Treasurer is a parliamentary official, who comes under the Quaestors. The draft budget, prepared each year by the Quaestors, is debated within a ‘joint appropriations committee’, composed of the Quaestors of the two assemblies (six in all) convened under the presidency of a chamber president at the Audit Court assisted by two assessor magistrates who have no vote. Whatever the role effectively played by this chamber president during the debates, the fact that budget proposals by the assembly authorities must be submitted to personalities outside Parliament may have been perceived as a decline in Parliament’s financial autonomy. The joint committee limits itself to determining the amounts of the appropriations deemed necessary for the assemblies to operate. It lies with the Quaestors to allocate the appropriations between the various expenditure headings. The annual Finance Act comprises, in the form of an appended document, a report on the budgets of the parliamentary assemblies drawn up by the joint committee, which gives indications on the amounts of expenditure, its variation from one year to another, and its planned use. A special committee tasked with verifying and clearing the accounts, composed of 15 deputies, examines each year the accounts of each closed year (Rule 16 of the National Assembly Rules of Procedure) and gives a discharge to the Quaestors in respect of their management. Since 1994, it has drawn up a report that is published at the end of each financial year.
Parliamentary allowance The allowances allocated to deputies were defined by ordinance no. 58-1210 of 13 December 1958. The basic allowance is calculated ‘with reference to the salary of officials occupying State posts classified in the so-called outside the pay scale category. It is equal to the average of the lowest salary and the highest salary of this category’, which corresponds to the salary of a senior member of the Conseil d’État who has worked for less than one year as such. Deputies also receive the residence allowance, like officials, at the rate of 3%. According to Article 2 of the above-mentioned ordinance: ‘The parliamentary allowance is completed by a so-called function allowance’; the amount of this allowance is equal to a quarter of the amount of the parliamentary allowance (parliamentary allowance strictly speaking increased by the residence allowance). Various mandatory withholdings are deducted from this allowance: contribution to the pensions fund; exceptional solidarity contribution; generalised social contribution; contribution for the repayment of the social debt; and contribution to the income guarantee fund. The basic parliamentary allowance increased by the residence allowance, and excluding the function allowance, is taxable according to the rules applicable to salaries and pay. According to the institutional Act no. 92-175 of 25 February 1992, a deputy holding local mandates or exercising local electoral duties cannot add the allowances related to these mandates or functions to his basic parliamentary allowance except within the limit of one and a half times of the latter. The family benefits received by deputies are equivalent to those of the general wage earners scheme. Secretariat and mandate costs To meet the various expenses related to the exercise of their mandate which are not directly covered or reimbursed by the Assembly, deputies receive an allowance covering mandate costs, the amount of which is revalued like the salaries of civil and local-government service, and which allows them in particular to pay one or several secretaries. Staff appropriation Each deputy is allocated an appropriation assigned to the payment of his staff. The staff, also known as parliamentary assistants, are hired by a deputy under a private law contract managed by the National Assembly and paid from a specific appropriation allocated by the Assembly to each of its members. These assistants exercise their activity either in a deputy’s constituency or in Paris. The corresponding appropriation allows a staff of three to be paid; it can however be paid, according to the deputy’s wish, to a number of persons varying from one to five. The deputy acts in the capacity of employer: he recruits, fires, and determines the work conditions and salary of his personnel. The appropriation set aside in this respect for each deputy is revalued like the salaries of those in civil and local-government service. In the event of non-use of the totality of the appropriation, the available share remains acquired by the National Assembly budget or can be transferred by the deputy to his political group for the payment of the employees of this group. Travel facilities - Travel throughout the national territory by rail: the National Assembly issues a nominative card granting free access to all the SNCF network in first class, as well as to couchettes and sleeping cars for travel within the borders of metropolitan France. - Travel in Paris and the Paris area: the National Assembly has a fleet of some twenty vehicles assigned by priority to the travel of official delegations and to travel required by legislative work. The fleet also meets, as far as possible, the travel requirements of deputies related to their other obligations in Paris and takes them to the airports. Taxis are called when the fleet cannot meet all requests. - Air travel: the National Assembly pays each year: * For deputies in metropolitan France: forty return trips between Paris and the constituency when it is served by a regular airline (eighty ‘constituency’ trips); six return trips in metropolitan France other than to the constituency; * For overseas deputies: an annual appropriation equal, for deputies from the overseas departments, to the cost of twenty-six single flights in business club class between Paris and the constituency and, for deputies from the overseas territories and territorial units, to the cost of sixteen single flights in first class between Paris and the constituency, and four return trips in metropolitan France. Social security and pensions It is mandatory for deputies to join the National Assembly social security fund, a special regime created by the National Assembly Bureau in 1948 and managed by a management committee composed of three Quaestors and a representative of each of the political groups. This fund provides benefits in kind for illness and maternity and allocates a death benefit or allowances in the event of death. The deputies’ pensions fund, created by a resolution of the Chamber of Deputies of 23 December 1904, is funded by a contribution deducted from the parliamentary allowance and by a subsidy provided for in the Assembly’s budget. Pensions are calculated according to the number of years of contribution, and it should be pointed out that deputies pay a double contribution during the first fifteen years of their mandate. Deputies are normally entitled to a pension at age 55. Various facilities * Means of communication Telephone calls to all the metropolitan network from a telephone installed in the deputy’s office at the Palais-Bourbon are paid by the National Assembly. Deputies can also be granted, on request, a global communication sum covering: telephone service subscriptions for a maximum of four telephone lines in their name, among which two can be mobile lines; a subscription to an Internet service provider; and the cost of calls within the limit of the global sum. Mail of a parliamentary nature, in other words required to accomplish the legislative mandate, is franked at the expense of the National Assembly. On the other hand, postage is not paid for mail of a private nature, or mail presenting a general or collective nature (invitations, announcements, visiting cards, printed matter, handouts, calls for subscriptions, newspapers…). Deputies are also granted an appropriation to buy data processing equipment. * Catering Deputies can choose between two restaurants. One is strictly reserved for their use, whereas they can also invite guests to the other. The provision of meals is a service paid by deputies. * Housing The National Assembly allocates loans to buy housing or premises to be used as an office or committee rooms, either in Paris or in the constituency. The average amount of loans granted to deputies amounts to approximately €76,225 (length 10 years, rate 2%). The Assembly owns a building, near the Palais-Bourbon, used as a hotel where parliamentarians can reserve a room at their expense.
Under the previous Republics, actions of the assemblies, i.e. parliamentary actions, came under the regime of Government action, in other words judges declared they lacked jurisdiction to rule on them. Article 8 of ordinance no. 58-1100 of 17 November 1958 on the functioning of the parliamentary assemblies made a first exception to this regime of jurisdictional immunity by laying down the rule that ‘the State is responsible for damage of all kinds caused by the departments of the parliamentary assemblies.’ Further exceptions were made by the Act on disputes implicating agents of the assemblies, and particularly the Act of 13 July 1983 on the rights and obligations of officials in its Article 31. New restrictions to this regime of jurisdictional immunity also result from jurisdictional decisions, one of which, formed by an assembly decision of the Conseil d'État of 5 March 1999, is of major importance and contributes to drawing closer to the ordinary law regime disputes concerning actions of parliamentary assemblies. Drawing the consequences of this evolution, the Assembly Bureau adopted in February 2001, an order regulating the Assembly’s public supply contracts (Journal officiel – Official Gazette - of 23 February 2001).
Their regime applies the principle of autonomy since Rule 17 of the Assembly Rules of Procedure lays down that ‘the Bureau shall lay down rules to govern the organisation and operation of departments of the Assembly, the application, interpretation and implementation, by the several departments, of the provisions of these Rules, staff regulations and relations between the administration of the Assembly and staff associations.’ Governed, on these bases, by an order of the Bureau laying down rules on the organisation of the departments which set forth the staff regulations of the National Assembly personnel, the some 1,300 Assembly officials are split between the legislative departments and the administrative departments, under the administrative authority of two secretaries general: nearly half of the personnel is assigned to reception, supervision, security and current maintenance tasks executed by ushers, agents and guards-supervisors; secretarial work occupies nearly a fifth of the staff; deputy administrators (administrateurs-adjoints) are tasked with applying the procedural rules and management rules; conception and technical assistance work is rather a matter for administrators (administrateurs) and councillors (conseillers), managed by directors (directeurs) ; and debate secretaries and debate drafters are tasked with drawing up reports of the debates in the hemicycle. The staff regulations of assembly agents are characterised by the fact that permanent posts are exclusively held by parliamentary officials. These officials are State officials but are not covered by the general staff regulations of civil and local-government service. They must be recruited by competitive examination, and must comply with specific obligations as regards their neutrality and availability. As a rule, Assembly officials spend their whole career at the Assembly. There are however possibilities of secondment or loan.
The first computer specialist was recruited by the National Assembly in 1969 at the time of the implementation of the Plan Calcul aimed at making the country independent as regards large computer systems. In 1975 the first two computers were installed (Bull 6160 machines) and the management data processing division, then part of the financial affairs department, was also created at the same time. The departments were progressively equipped with personal computers from 1986 on. Then, shortly before 1990, the data processing activity was structured by the creation of a data processing department. It covers the main aspects of the Assembly’s data processing needs and has been setting up since 1995 an information system composed of networked databases. In 1990 an annual data processing equipment appropriation was granted to deputies. The next step entailed the recruitment of specialised executive technicians and the implementation of medium-term planning. A change in scale occurred with the advent of the Internet: in 1996 the Assembly’s website was created. Since 1997, demand at the Assembly for Internet connections has become generalised and the political authorities have used their best endeavours to transform the Assembly website into a documentary instrument for broader dissemination of parliamentary work. Since 1998, an Intranet - Extranet site has been available to deputies and their staff. The departments can also use an Intranet site. Since June 2002 and the beginning of the 12th term, each deputy has had a computer terminal with an Internet connection and email in his office at the National Assembly. Deputies and the departments now have broad access to new technologies, both in terms of sources of information and work means. The Assembly’s website ( http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ) allows the public to access a very wide range of information. In particular, all parliamentary documents can be consulted on-line (government and Members’ bills, reports, instruments adopted…). The summary record of the debates of a sitting can be consulted approximately three hours after it has been adjourned. The site also features biographical notes on the deputies, states the composition of the various parliamentary bodies and Assembly departments, and presents many texts and illustrations on the Palais Bourbon and the operation of the National Assembly.
Disclosure is an essential element of parliamentary debates and was already enshrined in the Constitution of 3 September 1791. Sittings are brought to public notice firstly by the presence of the public and by the dissemination of written reports of the Assembly’s work. Similarly, work by the committees and other Assembly bodies give rise to the publication of written documents which the public can buy or consult on the Internet. Apart from this direct information, the National Assembly has a policy of being open to the written and audiovisual press, whose role has become essential in informing the public. More than 350 French journalists, representing nearly one hundred national or local press organs, are accredited to the Palais-Bourbon where they mingle with forty or so of their foreign colleagues, representing 40 newspapers or agencies from twenty countries. Accredited journalists from the written press have been attending the debates for a long time. Galleries are reserved for them. They can also make use of two newsrooms in the immediate vicinity of the chamber. The first radio broadcast of the debates dates back to 1947. At the time, radio broadcasts were very important but over the years audiovisual broadcasts have taken over from them. In the same way that it publishes verbatim reports of the sittings, the Assembly has also ensured ‘full audiovisual coverage’ of the debates in public sitting, since 1993, by means of six cameras situated in the chamber. Also two rooms are equipped to record the public hearings of committees and delegations, as well as of some symposia organised by the Assembly. These images are televised via internal television and made available free of charge to television channels. Until spring 2000, they were also televised by cable and satellite via the ‘Canal Assemblées’ channel which also televised the work by the Senate. Created by Act no. 99-1174 of 30 December 1999, the Chaîne Parlementaire has taken over from this ‘simple’ broadcast of the debates. According to the terms of this Act, the Chaîne Parlementaire ‘pursues a mission of public service, information and awareness-raising of citizens regarding public life, by educational and civic parliamentary programmes.’ For this purpose it broadcasts, with equal on-air time, the programmes of two independent companies, LCP-Assemblée-nationale (LCP-AN) and Public-Sénat, which are bound to each of the assemblies by an agreement setting forth in particular the financial participation which they receive. In accordance with the constitutional principle of the separation of powers, the two companies are not subject to the audiovisual regulatory authority, the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (Higher audiovisual board). Similarly, although in receipt of public funds, they do not come under the jurisdiction of the Audit Court, pursuant to the principle of the financial autonomy of Parliament. Under the supervision of the Bureau of each assembly, the companies must comply with the regulations applying to thematic television channels and meet the requirement of programme impartiality imposed by law. LCP is televised from 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. on all the cabled networks and satellite bouquets pursuant to a provision of the Act of 30 December 1999 which obliges operators to make the channel programmes available to their subscribers free of charge. The channel can also be accessed on the Internet on the National Assembly and Senate websites. Directed by two president and chief executive officers, the two components of the Chaîne Parlementaire each have an editorial staff of some fifteen journalists and enjoy the technical facilities existing at the two chambers. Direct broadcast of debates in public sitting and in committee is preferred, subject to alternate Assembly-Senate programming in the daily schedule of programmes. Also the fact that they can make use of production studios and production control rooms allows them to film stage programmes. As regards more specifically LCP-AN, the priority granted to parliamentary work strictly speaking is accompanied by information rendezvous, debates and magazines. Two news programmes are produced every day at lunchtime and in the evening, as well as debates based on political and parliamentary current events. Also weekly magazines complete this programming which takes account of all aspects of parliamentary activity. The two sittings of questions to the Government, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of each week, are also televised direct by France 3 and have been translated since 1999 into sign language and feature teletext type subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing. Lastly, the public sitting and some meetings of committees open to the press are televised direct on the Internet, via the National Assembly website.
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