The Senate votes the creation of a green savings plan for young people but removes the matching contribution from the State

The Senate, with a majority on the right, adopted widely at first reading, after having amended it, green industry bill intended to promote carbon-free reindustrialization in France. Among the flagship measures of the financing component, the creation of a green savings plan for young people was voted. The “savings-future-climate plan”which parents will be able to open for their children, will be blocked until they reach majority, except in exceptional circumstances.

The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire praised a “beautiful product”, “particularly attractive”: “a rate of remuneration higher than the Livret A” and “a very incentive and quite exceptional tax system, zero charge, zero tax “. “It will be completely and totally green,” he ured. The government expects one billion euros to be collected from this savings-future-climate plan.

State contribution removed

The left opposed the creation of this new savings product which, according to socialist Isabelle Briquet, “is more about communication than efficiency” and “makes the lack of public funding even more visible”. Ecologist Daniel Breuiller denounced “a false good idea”, criticizing “a financial product which involves risks” and which will be reserved for the wealthiest social categories. LR rapporteur Christine Lavarde pleaded to “give him a chance”.

On his initiative, the senators however removed the matching contribution from the State initially planned by the government for any opening of this product. The Minister agreed to this deletion, in view of the state of public finances. A contribution “would be perfect with a balanced budget”, he noted.

The Senate again adopted two amendments by Christine Lavarde, this time against the advice of the government. One specifies the securities in which the plan may be invested, “in order to ensure that it meets the objectives, namely to finance the ecological transition and the productive economy”. The second tends to frame the fees that will be applied to the plan. The minister said he feared “that we are getting involved in overly complex management rules and that that will kill the project in the bud”.

The bill, won by 251 votes “for”, 12 “against” (the environmental group) and 80 abstentions (socialists and communists), should be on the menu of the National embly during the second week of July.