Simplification bill: tense debates expected in the Assembly, particularly on ZFEs

"We are not in the Trump administration," declared Civil Service Minister Laurent Marcangeli last week, vowing not to unsheathe either a chainsaw or an axe.

The fact remains that, following its examination in the Senate and, above all, in committee in the Assembly, the text plans to eliminate dozens of bodies, sometimes against the government's advice, which has provoked the anger of the left and environmentalists who denounce "blind cuts".

"Simplification" versus "deregulation"

These include the High Council for the Future of Health Insurance, the High Commission for Digital and Postal Services, the Transport Infrastructure Financing Agency (Afit), and the Regional Economic, Social and Environmental Councils (CESER).

And, while the latter two will be the subject of reinstatement amendments from the government and certain left-wing and centrist MPs, the right and the National Rally will, on the contrary, attempt to go further by once again attempting to abolish the Ecological Transition Agency (ADEME), or the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB).

The eclectic bill provides for procedural simplifications concerning the date of the harvest, the sale of in vitro diagnostic medical devices, and the sale of alcoholic beverages. "A first step," says Laurent Marcangeli, who welcomes the announced elimination of "around fifty administrative formalities that have become unnecessary."

To "make life easier" for businesses, nearly "200 Cerfa forms" are also to be eliminated by the end of the year, according to Minister Delegate for Trade Véronique Louwagie. However, the "SME test," a highly publicized measure designed to measure the impact of new standards on businesses, is expected to be reintroduced in the House, after MPs removed a Senate version in committee that was deemed too complex.

"This is a deregulatory text open to all winds, especially those of Trumpism," denounces socialist Gérard Leseul, further criticizing the attacks against the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP). Some MPs, including Macron supporters, want to abolish it, while the government will propose by amendment to exclude industrial projects from its scope, with some exceptions.

“ZAN”, “ZFE”… acronyms under threat

More broadly, the bill, which is the subject of nearly 2.500 amendments (some of which will be declared inadmissible), has become the breeding ground for a political battle over environmental law and its standards.

For the rebellious Anne Stambach-Terrenoir, it is "an ecological bombshell", when the Ecologist and Social group, which will defend a motion of rejection, denounces an "abrogation of the Environmental Code and the Climate-Resilience law".

In their sights are amendments adopted in committee that significantly cut into the "Zero Net Artificialization" (ZAN) system, intended to combat the concreting of rural areas, but which the right considers "ruralicide".

Another key measure, with the adoption in committee of amendments from the Republicans and the National Rally, is the outright repeal of "low-emission zones" (LEZs). Initiated in 2019 and extended in 2021, these zones aim to limit emissions of fine particles, responsible for respiratory illnesses and 40.000 deaths per year according to Public Health France, by excluding certain vehicles based on Crit'Air stickers.

But they are accused by elected officials from all sides of excluding certain categories of the population or penalizing low-income households. So much so that the LR and RN amendments were adopted in committee with votes from the central bloc and abstentions from the left.

The government will attempt to find a middle way in the chamber: limiting the ZFE around the Paris and Lyon conurbations.

And in the tense context surrounding the A69 motorway construction site in the Tarn, the text includes several provisions facilitating or even automating for certain projects the obtaining of an "imperative reason of major public interest", allowing for an exception to the protection of protected species.