A parliamentary compromise provides for an additional budgetary effort for the armies, with an acceleration of spending and a final vote expected on July 1.
The deputies and senators found a compromise on the military programming law (LPM), which provides for an additional effort of 36 billion euros by 2030, with an accelerated increase in spending.
An agreement by a joint committee
Seven deputies and seven senators agreed in a joint committee (CMP) on a common version of this government text, updating the last military programming law of 2023, according to several parliamentary sources. Their version will still have to be adopted on June 30 in the Senate, then the next day in the Assembly. Emmanuel Macron hopes to promulgate it symbolically before July 14.
The trajectory on which deputies and senators agreed on Tuesday provides, as in the initial text, 436 billion euros by 2030, to reach an annual military budget of 76.3 billion, or 2.5% of GDP. The final vote on the LPM will take place on July 1.
The compromise reached on Tuesday plans to accelerate the effort, at a constant budget. Clearly, part of the expenditure planned for 2029 and 2030 would be brought forward to 2028, representing approximately “1.2 billion euros”, according to the Senate rapporteur, Cédric Perrin (LR), in charge. This compromise follows the decision of the senatorial right, which demanded an additional windfall of 14 billion euros to deal with potential crises, to delete the article to mark its opposition, virtually leaving the text without an investment trajectory.
The senators also claim to have obtained in CMP compensation mechanisms for the armies for possible “additional costs linked to external operations” for example, or to the “replacement of equipment and materials lost within the framework of an operational mission”.
A compromise which “postpones the problem until later”, regretted Senator Cédric Perrin, who still believes that we must go beyond 436 billion. “We will have to do more and faster, but that requires post-presidential national support,” judges his counterpart in the Assembly Jean-Louis Thiériot.
“It’s a transitional LPM, not up to par, which only counts for the next few months,” responded RN deputy Laurent Jacobelli on Tuesday. The RN parliamentarians also abstained in the CMP, particularly scalded by a formulation on possible European partnerships to develop an aircraft of the future, which caused several session suspensions.
Anna Pic (PS), confirmed that her group should vote for a “necessary budgetary adjustment” for the armies, despite concerns about the levers which will make it possible to finance the efforts made. The Insoumis, who believe that the text does not fundamentally meet the needs of a new model of army, will vote against, confirmed Aurélien Saintoul, also stressing that most of the efforts will be conditioned by the next presidential election.
A non-binding programming law
Not binding on paper, the LPM must still be validated annually during budgetary discussions in Parliament. A significant part of the investment choices will therefore fall to the government installed after the presidential election, which could launch its own programming law.
