The start of the joint committee (CMP) is given at 5 p.m. this Monday at the National Assembly to try to find a compromise on the immigration bill.
Will a final agreement be found? This Monday, December 18, 2023, seven deputies and seven senators are meeting as part of a joint committee (CMP) supposed to seal the fate of the government’s immigration bill, rejected in the National Assembly a week earlier due to a motion to reject at the initiative of environmentalists. So, negotiations continue between the right and the majority to draw the outline of a compromise on a new text. Some parliamentarians already seem put together, for others, the debates promise to be tough. Discussions will begin at 5 p.m.
The creation of a residence permit in professions in shortage should be part of this agreement. Be careful, it could more resemble an exceptional regularization. The Senate had largely remodeled it last November to limit its effects and give it an exceptional character, which was not the primary desire of the majority. Ultimately, the senatorial version should be accepted by the government. In other words, the text would provide for regularization directly granted by decision of the prefects, without automaticity.
Here is another divisive measure. For their part, the senators are calling for a residence period of 5 years to be able to benefit from family allowances as a foreigner. Today, six months are necessary. However, the final agreement should be a little more flexible on the issue, but which considerably changes the regulations in force for poor immigrants. A compromise could result in CMP over a period of 3 years. “It’s a concession that costs me,” declared the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet this Monday morning on BFMTV. On Sunday, Renaissance MP Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet spoke of “a slap in the face in the way we have built our social protection in our country”. Still, an agreement on this famous 3-year period should be reached this Monday, December 18.
The right would have given its agreement to change the retention rules. Indeed, the agreement on the immigration law should clearly include the ban on placing minors between 16 and 18 years old in administrative detention centers (CRA). Currently, children accompanied by their parents can be placed there. The agreement should also include maintaining the right to emergency accommodation for people subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF).
On the other hand, certain relatively flammable points are still pending. The end of the automaticity of land law was voted for by the senators but does not appear in the majority’s initial copy. The outcome therefore remains very uncertain for this part of the project. Immigration quotas were also set by the right with the holding of a parliamentary debate to agree on quantified objectives for residence permits granted. Hotly contested in the Law Committee of the Assembly, this point could be the subject of lively debates this Monday from 5 p.m.
Finally, the senators reinstated the offense of illegal stay before it was removed by the Renaissance deputies in committee. The left flank of the majority could be forced to make certain concessions with a view to a rapid agreement. Conversely, there does not seem to be any doubt about the outcome granted at the end of State Medical Aid (AME). This aid, which allows 100% coverage of many medical, hospital and pharmaceutical costs, will not be eliminated. It is currently open to foreigners in an irregular situation without a residence permit.
