Parliament perpetuates the annual allocation of a fraction of VAT | EUROtoday

Parliament definitively accepted the reform of public broadcasting financing on Wednesday, November 20, with deputies voting for the perpetuation of the mechanism put in place because the abolition of the license payment two years in the past. The legislation gives for financing by way of the annual allocation of a “state tax amount”as has been the case since 2022, with a fraction of the VAT.

It was voted on by the deputies (119 for, 6 towards) with out modification of the textual content adopted within the Senate. This is what the federal government wished to permit fast promulgation and keep away from public broadcasting being financed immediately from the state funds, a “budgeting” detrimental to its independence.

Apart from La France insoumise (LFI) which abstained, the left was in favor, however denounced “a compelling vote” because of “the shortcomings and unpreparedness of the government”within the phrases of socialist deputy Emmanuel Grégoire throughout the debates. A vote to keep away from a “budgeting” who can be “a great threat” for public broadcasting, he added.

A textual content that preserves “financing and independence”

During the debates, the 4 teams of the New Popular Front (NFP) recalled their attachment to a robust public audiovisual sector and their opposition to a reform of its governance, as desired by Minister Rachida Dati. Several of their amendments, all withdrawn to permit a compliant vote, had been a chance to current their need to determine a common and progressive payment within the occasion of entry to energy.

The National Rally (RN) abstained, deploring a “budget DIY” by the voice of MP Bruno Clavet. He denounced corporations “under public drip” and recalled his social gathering’s need to denationalise a part of them. After the adoption, the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, welcomed on X the vote by the deputies of a textual content “which allows us to preserve funding and independence” of the general public audiovisual service.

Since the disappearance of the license payment in 2022, public broadcasting (France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde, INA, TV5Monde and Arte) was solely financed by a provisional system whose deadline was set on the finish of 2024. Without a legislation promulgated by the tip of November, it risked being financed immediately from the state funds. Gold “budgeting public broadcasting means increasing the risk of reducing its means (…), it is harming the credibility of these organizations by favoring their assimilation to state media”warned the textual content’s rapporteur, Denis Masséglia (Renaissance).

In a message addressed to workers, the president of France Télévisions, Delphine Ernotte-Cunci, welcomed a “very good news”. “From 2025, the financing of France Télévisions and all of our sister companies will continue to be based on the allocation of revenue from a tax, which constitutes a guarantee of stability and independence essential to the exercise of our missions »she congratulated herself. She highlighted the “collective mobilization of all public broadcasting companies” on this topic, and that of “parliamentarians of all stripes”sign, in keeping with her, “the civic and democratic importance that we play in society”.