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Acts of a specific character
Apart from institutional Acts and enabling Acts, already mentioned, the Constitution reserves specific treatment for some other Acts: two which Parliament considers each year — the Finance Act (Article 47 of the Constitution) and the Social Security Finance Act (Article 47-1) ; others which have been said to form a considerable share of the bills passed by Parliament — Acts authorising the ratification of treaties or international agreements (Article 53, paragraph 1); and lastly, constitutional Acts, by which Parliament exercises its constituent power (Article 89). The Finance Act, also commonly called the budget, authorises the collection of taxes and other State resources and determines the expenditure generated by its activities. As the fiscal year begins on 1 January, the Finance Act must be promulgated at the latest by 31 December of the preceding year. Its adoption procedure is therefore subject to strict provisions characterised by a higher governmental role and mandatory time limits. An institutional ordinance of 1 August 2001 shall replace as of 2005 that of 2 January 1959. It regulates the content, elaboration procedure, and the presentation, debate and implementation details for Finance Acts. Its provisions also apply to amending Finance Acts aimed at amending the annual Finance Act and which are also known as a ‘collectif budgétaire’ (supplementary estimates). The main characteristics of the procedure applying to Finance Acts are as follows: As regards Finance Acts the government has a monopoly defined by Article 37 of the institutional ordinance of 2 January 1959. ‘Under the authority of the Prime Minister, the Minister for Finance prepares finance bills which are adopted by the Council of Ministers.’ The right of parliament to initiate statutes is excluded at this stage — there are no finance Members’ bills, but the right of amendment can be exercised within certain limits. The finance bill is presented first to the National Assembly, pursuant to the principle of financial priority set forth in Article 39 of the Constitution. Appropriations sets aside by the Finance Act are grouped per chapter, each being a whole programme contributing to a defined public policy. According to Article 47, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, should the National Assembly fail to reach a decision on first reading within forty days following the introduction of a bill, the Government shall refer to the Senate the bill initially presented, amended where applicable by the amendments passed by the Assembly and accepted by the Senate. In this case, the Senate shall reach a decision within fifteen days. However, if the National Assembly has reached a decision in the prescribed time limit of forty days, the Senate shall have twenty days to reach a decision. Leaving amendments aside, which are always numerous, a hundred or so votes are needed to adopt the general budget appropriations, and twenty or so for those of the ancillary budgets and of the special Treasury accounts. The budget procedure does not include any ‘shuttle’. After a single reading in each assembly, or if the Senate has not reached a decision in the prescribed time limit, the bill is considered under the urgency procedure, in other words by a joint committee convened by the Government (Article 40 of the ordinance of 1 August 2001). Should Parliament fail to reach a decision within the time limit of seventy days after the tabling of a bill — wording which excludes the case of rejection — it may be brought into force by ordinance. If it is impossible to promulgate the finance bill before the beginning of the financial year, the Government may ask Parliament to pass the first part of the Finance Act (revenue) or else pass a special Act authorising it to continue to collect the existing taxes. The Finance Act is in most cases subject to scrutiny by the Constitutional Council, which shall reach a decision in a very short timeframe since the Finance Act must be published in the Official Gazette at the latest by 31 December in order to avoid any interruption in the collection of taxes authorised annually in its first article. Following the adoption of the institutional Act no. 2001-692 of 1 August 2001 relative to Finance Acts, the whole budget procedure will be deeply amended as of the Finance Act for 2006 to be considered in 2005. This category of acts was created by the institutional Act of 22 February 1996. The Constitution did not provide for any annual procedure to determine the general conditions of the financial balance of the social security, whereas the sums involved are higher than those of Finance Acts. Three articles have been amended : - Article 34, which defines the ambit of statutes. Parliament was already empowered to ‘determine the fundamental principles (…) of the social security,’ and it has become so ‘to determine the general conditions for its financial balance’ and to determine, taking revenue forecasts into account, ‘its expenditure targets.’; - Article 39, where paragraph 2 states that finance bills and now also social security finance bills shall be considered first by the National Assembly. This was traditionally the case for just finance bills ; - Article 47, now featuring 47-1, which imposes on the National Assembly, for the first reading, shorter consideration time limits than for finance bills: twenty days following the introduction of a bill instead of forty. The time limit imposed on the Senate remains the same: fifteen days. The total time limit is fifty days (instead of seventy); if it is not respected ‘the provisions of the bill may be implemented by ordinance.’ The institutional Act of 22 July 1996 confirmed the annuality of the passing of Finance Acts and specified that amendments failing to comply with its aim are inadmissible. The debate of Finance Acts and of Social Security Finance Acts are two important moments in the National Assembly’s activity. Debate not only leads to the passing of provisions with often very wide ranging consequences (financial, economic, fiscal, social), but is also part of the scrutiny role, often inseparable from the legislative role, while differing from it by the implementation of specific procedures. Pursuant to Article 52 of the Constitution, the President of the Republic shall negotiate and ratify treaties. However, Article 53 of the Constitution sets forth that ‘Peace treaties, commercial treaties, treaties or agreements relating to international organisation, those that commit the finances of the State, those that modify provisions which are matters for statute, those relating to the status of persons, and those that involve the cession, exchange or addition of territory, may be ratified or approved only by virtue of an Act of Parliament.’ In practice, these provisions mean that, save recourse to a referendum, a large share of treaties and agreements concluded by France are submitted to Parliament before these Acts enter into force. Agreements concluded by the European Union are submitted to Parliament when they concern a field of competence shared between the Union and the Member States. At the National Assembly, all treaties and agreements are systematically committed to the Foreign Affairs Committee which therefore considers some forty agreements each year. Their consideration in committee is very close to that of a ‘normal’ bill apart from the fact that they cannot be amended. Quite often, these bills are adopted unanimously by the committee but, in some cases, the committee postpones its decision, or even rejects the bill or obtains its adjournment. Adjournment of the bill is a procedure specific to the consideration of treaties and international agreements (Rule 128 of the Rules of Procedure). This procedure allows the debate of an international agreement to be postponed without formally rejecting it. It is adapted to situations where deputies deem that their approval must depend on conditions external to the aim of the agreement. In most cases, ratification authorisations are addressed by the simplified examination procedure. According to Rule 107 of the Rules of Procedure, as amended in March 1998, these bills can be put directly to vote without any speaker intervening, unless the Chairmen’s Conference decides otherwise. These provisions do not at all limit the powers of the Assembly since, on the one hand, consideration of the bill has taken place in committee and, on the other hand, group Chairmen in particular can object to the simplified examination procedure. According to the Rules of Procedure (Rule 126, paragraph 1), ‘Government and Members’ bills to amend the Constitution shall be considered and put to vote by the ordinary legislative procedure, subject to the second paragraph of Article 89 of the Constitution. However, the simplified examination procedure shall not be used.’ Article 89, paragraph 2, states that ‘A government or a member’s bill shall be passed by the two assemblies in identical terms.’, which implies that the joint committee procedure does not apply in this case. To be laid before Congress or submitted to referendum, depending on the choice made by the President of the Republic when it is a matter of an amendment bill, the text must therefore be previously passed in identical terms by the two assemblies. |
