End of life, agricultural sovereignty, New Caledonia… Here is the parliamentary calendar of the main bills examined until June

The government sent a letter to deputies and senators on Monday detailing the progress of the parliamentary session until the summer.

It was extremely anticipated. The government finally unveiled, Monday March 11, the parliamentary calendar for the current session, which will end at the end of June. A special session is expected to take place in July, but it will be shorter than usual due to the Olympics. The Minister of Relations with Parliament, Marie Lebec, sent a letter to the presidents of the two chambers, Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher, in which she details the texts which will be examined by parliamentarians in the coming months.

In March and April, the Assembly must continue the examination of several current texts: the bill aimed at better protecting child victims of domestic violence, the bill aimed at strengthening the fight against sectarian aberrations (in new reading after the failure of the joint committee on March 7) or the text relating to the organization of nuclear safety governance. For new projects, we will have to wait until May, after a two-week break in parliamentary work at the end of April. On the program, in particular: the text on the end of life, the constitutional reform for New Caledonia or the bill on parental responsibility, one year after the riots of summer 2023. Franceinfo summarizes the main texts which will be debated shortly in Parliament.

The very sensitive examination of the text on the end of life (end of May)

The end-of-life bill, which will include a “assisted dying” supervised, will begin its parliamentary journey with a plenary session at the National Assembly from May 27, announced Monday the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, on the network. The text, which must be transmitted within ten days to the Council of State, plans to open the “possibility of requesting assistance in dying under certain strict conditions”, according to announcements made by Emmanuel Macron. Among the restrictions, candidates must be “capable of full and complete discernment”which excludes, for example, psychiatric patients or cases of Alzheimer’s.

The text, which could meet opposition from the parliamentary right, will concern people suffering from a pathology “incurable” with “vital prognosis committed in the short or medium term”and suffering suffering “refractory” that cannot be relieved. This “help” will be conditional on the opinion “college” from the medical team within fifteen days. The patient may absorb the deadly product alone or, when unable to do so – particularly in the case of certain neurodegenerative diseases such as Charcot’s disease – with the assistance of a member of the medical profession. or a voluntary person designated by him.

A draft orientation law for agricultural sovereignty revised and corrected (mid-May)

This text, which has been in preparation for more than a year, has been largely modified in light of the agricultural crisis which has seen the sector mobilize widely throughout France. If the government has taken several emergency measures, it now intends to legislate on the subject. The bill, which will be debated in Parliament from mid-May, recognizes a “objective of agricultural and food sovereignty”, in the words of Gabriel Attal. The government was also committed to granting “presumption of emergency” in the event of litigation surrounding the construction of a water reserve for irrigation or a livestock building, to reduce the time taken for these procedures.

This “presumption of emergency” will concern, according to the elements given by the government, “projects relating to water management” And “certain installations classified as agricultural environmental protection”which concerns, for example, large pig and chicken farms which are subject to authorization by State services because of their potential environmental impact.

This bill will also establish regulations “unique” on hedges and posit the principle that “the destruction of all or part of a hedge is prohibited”, specifying the conditions for exceptions to this principle. The bill must also contain “a provision on herd protection dogs”, like the patous subsidized by the State to protect livestock from wolf attacks. The text finally contains the creation of a new bac+3 level diploma – a “bachelor agro” – and the establishment of a “France agricultural services” network which will constitute a single window or entry point for applicants for installation under the aegis of the chambers of agriculture.

A constitutional reform for New Caledonia (in May)

The examination of the constitutional bill is already scheduled in the Senate on March 26. Subject to transmission by the upper house, the National Assembly therefore plans to examine this text in May “modifying the electorate for elections to the Congress and provincial assemblies of New Caledonia”.

Concretely, the government’s project plans to unfreeze the electorate in provincial and local Congress elections in order to open them to people with at least ten years of residence in New Caledonia. These ballots are today reserved for natives and residents who arrived before 1998 and their descendants. However, these elections are crucial in New Caledonia, where the provinces hold a large part of the powers in the territory. The review must take place before the next provincial elections, scheduled for December.

A text on parental responsibility, one year after the riots (in June)

A year after the riots following Nahel’s death which shook France, the government intends to respond firmly with a bill relating to parental responsibility. If we do not yet know the details of the text, Gabriel Attal launched some ideas during his general policy declaration on January 30. The Prime Minister therefore hoped that the “parents of young delinquents” who would have “totally removed from their parental responsibility” may be subject to work of general interest (TIG). He also announced the upcoming creation of “work of educational interest”equivalent to TIG but for minors under 16 years old.

The Prime Minister also proposed to “place in boarding school” young people “on the wrong slope” for the “cut off from their bad associates” rather than “allow one to fall into delinquency”.