Constitutional Council rejects bill on special credits, citing legislative overreach

The Council asserted its competence to rule on "conflicts of jurisdiction between the executive and legislative powers," based on Article 92 of the Constitution. It concluded that the National Assembly's bill exceeded the Parliament's scope of action. The Council's reasoning highlighted two main points.

Firstly, it found a violation of the domain reserved for organic law concerning finance laws. The Council stated that ordinary legislation, such as the bill from the National Assembly, "cannot institute an autonomous category of public credits, nor define their legal framework." This falls exclusively under Organic Law No. 2020-07 of February 26, 2020, which governs public finances.

The bill's attempt to define "special credits" and their legal framework was deemed to disregard Article 67, paragraph 3, of the Constitution. Secondly, the decision addressed the bill's encroachment on the executive's prerogatives. The Council noted that provisions in the bill aiming to regulate the commitment, liquidation, ordering, or control of these expenses directly interfered with a competence delegated to the regulatory power the executive by Organic Law, under Article 118 of Decree No. 2020-978 of April 23, 2020.

These provisions were considered to fall under the domain of regula