Barnier to exempt industry from "zero net artificialization" for five years

"I am in favour of exempting the industry from zero net artificialisation, which we call ZAN, for a period of five years, at the end of which we will carry out an evaluation," declared the head of government during a trip to Limoges.

The "Climate and Resilience" law, resulting from the Citizens' Convention and voted in 2021, initially aimed for "zero net artificialization of soils" by 2050, with the intermediate objective of halving the consumption of natural, agricultural and forest spaces by 2031.

But since then, the text has continued to be contested by local elected officials – the system must be managed by the regions – and business leaders.

The Ministry of Industry emphasizes that the sector "represents a very limited share of land (5% of the total)" and that "these rules could weaken us in the international competition to attract investment."

"Without giving up on the 2050 objective, the government hopes that no more industrial projects will be held back by the ZAN rule," the same source added.

In April, the Minister of Ecological Transition of the previous government, Christophe Béchu, had published a decree listing 424 projects benefiting from an exemption from this system. "No industrial project has been refused on the list, no industrial project is blocked by the implementation of the ZAN", his office had already explained.

This exemption is part of a series of measures to "do more and better in terms of simplification and support for industrial projects", according to Mr. Barnier.

Several of them were part of the bill on the simplification of economic life presented at the end of April by the previous government, suspended by the dissolution of the National Assembly on June 9 and re-examined this fall in Parliament.

Among them, the desire expressed by Mr. Barnier to "review the procedures" of the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP) "to exclude industrial projects which are too often delayed or discouraged by so many procedures."

"During discussions with manufacturers, particularly foreign manufacturers wishing to set up in France, the length of procedures is a recurring irritant," the ministry emphasizes. "Manufacturers will still be able to refer the matter to the CNDP, if they wish, in cases where local acceptability requires more in-depth discussions, but they will no longer be forced, by the texts or by a third party, to submit to them."

The Prime Minister also took up the idea of ​​setting up "accelerated litigation procedures", by removing one level of jurisdiction (the appeal), and called for "removing all over-transpositions" of European texts "which are not justified".

He also indicated that in terms of employment, the government would "facilitate the retraining of employees towards other professions" by building "with the social partners a single, simple, more agile retraining tool for companies", which will be "ready at the beginning of next year".

The government has finally announced the launch of an Aéropartenaires 2 fund, with an initial fundraising of 425 million euros, including 110 million in public funds, for SMEs and mid-cap companies in aeronautical subcontracting. It will also relaunch a consolidation fund of 250 million euros in the automotive subcontracting sector, which is suffering, like the 868 job cuts in France announced by the equipment manufacturer Valeo.