The Senate votes for an “unprecedented increase” in the Justice budget and the recruitment of 1,500 magistrates by 2027

The Senate endorsed, Tuesday, June 6, a “unprecedented rise” of the Justice budget, which will reach nearly 11 billion euros in 2027, during the first day of the examination of the reform carried out by the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti. Objective : “turning the page on dilapidation and homelessness” of the institution. It should be noted that this orientation and programming bill of the Ministry of Justice 2023-2027 is accompanied by a draft organic law reforming the status of magistrates.

> > Recruitment of magistrates, new prison places… What the justice reform project presented by Eric Dupond-Moretti contains

The Senate will thus continue until Thursday, or even Friday, the examination of these two texts and will decide on the whole during solemn votes on Tuesday, June 13. These texts will then go to the National Assembly. “They have the ambition to respond concretely to the expectations of our fellow citizens, first and foremost that of faster justice”, said the minister. The goal is to “halve all legal delays by 2027”.

Article 1 of the bill, voted on by a show of hands, intends to increase the ministry’s budget from 9.6 billion euros in 2023 to nearly 11 billion within four years. It also confirms the hiring of 10,000 people, including 1,500 magistrates. The senators increased the number of new clerks from 1,500 to 1,800 and provided for the creation of 600 posts for prison probation and integration advisers (CPIP).

The budgetary effort and the additional recruitments were welcomed by the magistrates, who were doubtful, however, about the promise of a rapid improvement in the processing times for cases. The senators also remain unsatisfied. If the budgetary effort “is certainly welcome”estimated the rapporteur Agnès Canayer (LR), “the justice reform project is not just an accounting reform”.