It is one of the eight permanent committees of the National Assembly, whose presidents are elected on Saturday. The Finance Committee plays a particularly strategic role in the legislative process.
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The committee chairs are elected on Saturday, July 20 at the National Assembly. The committees play a very important role in the legislative process, by examining bills before they are passed into the chamber. There are eight chairs for as many standing committees: cultural affairs, social affairs, and the highly coveted Finance Committee.
The first role of the latter is to control the State budget, which sets public expenditure and revenue for the coming year. This examination takes place before the text is passed in the chamber. The Finance Committee also checks the implementation of the Finance Act after its adoption and has broad powers.
Its president can, in particular, reject amendments to a bill that he considers to be poorly financed.
The Finance Committee can also hear ministers or any person linked to the country’s financial issues, for example a public company director or even a European Commissioner. But above all, it can go unannounced to a ministry to audit spending, this is called an on-site and documentary audit. Article 36 of the National Assembly’s regulations governs the areas of competence of this committee.
The parliamentary groups in the National Assembly have a number of seats in each committee proportional to their number of elected representatives. There are a maximum of 73 deputies in the Finance Committee. The president of this committee is chosen from among its members in a secret ballot. An absolute majority is required in the first two rounds to be elected, otherwise a relative majority is sufficient in the third round.
This position is very strategic because of the many skills of the committee, it is therefore extremely coveted. The rules of the Assembly specify that this presidency can only go to an opposition MP. It was Nicolas Sarkozy who wanted it in 2007. For example, the Insoumis Eric Coquerel was the president of the finance committee of the previous legislature. Since Thursday, the political groups have been officially formed in the hemicycle, only the presidential camp has not declared itself in the opposition.
