A “National Trade Council” will be created and will be led by former Minister Thierry Mandon

The Minister for SMEs and Trade Olivia Grégoire announces in an interview at Sunday newspaper (JDD) the creation of a National Trade Council (CNC) which will work on the evolution of the sector and will be led by the former Secretary of State for Simplification Thierry Mandon. She affirms to the weekly that this “indispensable tool for the representation of this sector and for working on its development” will be set up from December 1.

“[Thierry Mandon] will meet all the players and, together, we will define a roadmap, with concrete and rapid proposals from the month of June”continues the minister.

If today “72% of French spending is always done” in commercial areas, thesei “concentrate energy sieves, generate heat islands, consume agricultural and forest areas to the detriment of biodiversity and are sometimes unsightly”points out Olivia Grégoire.

“It’s time to rethink” those areas that are “today the symbols of the failed promises of the consumer society”, says the minister. “With the CNC and all the players, I want us to imagine their transformation to rebuild a business that fits into a place of life, densified and mixed with housing, services and offices, all with signatures architectural and environmental innovations”she says.

A “envelope of 24 million euros” will be allocated “in 2023, to carry out 10 to 30 demonstrators”, says Olivia Grégoire, adding that “The State will not finance this transformation alone but will stimulate it with local authorities and accelerate it”.

As for the “Action coeur de ville” program dedicated to the revitalization of the centers of medium-sized towns and endowed with a “envelope of 5 billion euros” of which 20% went to trade, “a new chapter [est] being prepared by the Ministries of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion”says Olivia Grégoire.