The government wants to “make life easier for businesses”, especially entrepreneurs who run VSEs and SMEs. This is what Bruno Le Maire repeats throughout his interviews. “We must lighten the mental burden that weighs on entrepreneurs,” he declared in an interview with World. The Minister of the Economy is due to present a simplification bill to the Council of Ministers this Wednesday, April 24. What makes it different from the many attempts since the 1960s? A grassroots approach, according to Bruno Le Maire. Since the fall, he has increased online consultations and trips to concoct a text which is based on the daily reality of the business leader, “overwhelmed with standards”. “I am not here to make you happy in your place: it is up to you to make proposals to us,” he declared on November 16, at the opening of the simplification meetings, which continued all winter, remember Le Figaro.
The project, transmitted to the Council of State in mid-April, contains some 26 provisions, inspired by the results of a citizen consultation, which made it possible to submit more than 5,000 proposals, according to Bercy. The bill is also based on the work of a parliamentary mission, whose report was made public in mid-February.
Salary slips, Cerfa, public contracts
Objective of this text: “to remove procedures” to “remove bureaucracy”. Bercy, for example, highlights the principle of “tell us once”, which aims to facilitate procedures between the public and private companies. In other words, once information is transmitted to a public institution, there is no need to repeat it to others, it will be done automatically.
In addition, among the provisions that attract attention is the gradual abolition of Cerfa administrative forms. For businesses alone, there are around 1,200 for different formalities. They are expected to disappear by 2030, according to the tenant of Bercy. The executive will also be empowered to issue orders to transform certain administrative authorization regimes (not specified at this stage) into “prior declaration regimes” – which seems less cumbersome. The law should also address the difficulties of access to public procurement for VSEs and SMEs. Indeed, according to the DGCCRF, French SMEs would certainly obtain 60% of public contracts, but for only 30% of the value of orders placed.
The text also provides for a simplification of the pay slip, which should convince employees less than their bosses. Only “the main aggregates” of remuneration will appear in the future on the pay slip, which would thus go from around fifty to around thirty lines. Finally, in terms of commercial leases, the monthly payment of rents and the capping of security deposits are planned, in accordance with an announcement made at the beginning of April by Bercy.