File n° 77 

I. – Organisation and financing of the secretariats of political groups

1. – The assistants of political groups

Each political group at the National Assembly is entirely responsible for its staff, whether it be their recruitment, their salaries, their work conditions or their dismissal.

These assistants come from different backgrounds: they may be young university graduates or doctoral students, civil servants on leave of absence from central or regional administration or even people from a community work background.

During the XIIth Parliament, there were around ninety assistants working for the political groups.

2. – The financing of the secretariats of political groups

In order to manage its staff, each political group can avail of a financial contribution from the National Assembly and from its members towards the secretarial costs. The latter contribution is made up of dues as well as transfers of a part of the staff allowance. The subsidy was introduced in 1954, i.e. twenty years before the creation of the assistant allowance.

Since 1980 the groups receive technical support from the Financial Affairs Department which calculates the salaries (and the social and tax contributions linked to them) of the groups’ employees upon the instructions of their employer.

3. – The Association of chairmen of political groups of the National Assembly

An association, set up in 1961, brings together the chairmen of the political groups of the National Assembly.

This association acts as the employer and is in charge of fulfilling the necessary obligations regarding tax declarations and the payment of social security contributions.

In practice, the competence of the association is mainly formal. Nonetheless it is registered with the URSSAF (the social security contribution collection agency) as an employer (in the place of the political groups which, in certain cases, have no legal identity).

In addition, all the employees of the political groups contribute to the same complementary retirement schemes and to the same contingency schemes.

II. – Missions of the secretariats of political groups

Generally speaking, the assistants of political groups work under a secretary general who, under the authority of the group’s chairman, apportions the tasks between them and is responsible for their management.

Each political group decides freely on its internal organization, which depends largely on the number of available assistants. Most of them are in charge of one or several areas of legislative activity. They follow the activities of the relevant committee and are in regular contact with the civil servants of its secretariat. They also contribute, within their group, to the drawing-up of the position to be adopted regarding the bills which are being examined (managing working groups, preparing Members’ bills and amendments etc.).