The figure stated by the Prime Minister is cited by several serious sources, but is more than fifteen years old. It might even be undervalued.
“Debureaucratize France” : this is the simplification objective stated by the head of government. During his general policy speech, Tuesday January 30, before the National Assembly, Gabriel Attal expressed his wish to reduce “the burden of rules and norms” weighing on French entrepreneurs. “It has been estimated that every year, we lose 60 billion euros because of the procedures and complexities of our daily lives”, said the Prime Minister. A figure that he repeated in an interview with Parisian, Saturday February 10. But where does this estimate come from? And is it fair?
Standards are all laws, decrees, orders, orders, circulars, codes, directives and other regulations. A legal framework within which the economic activities of companies – among others – are carried out. An information report from the Senate, relating to the “normative sobriety to strengthen the competitiveness of businesses”, published in June 2023, provides several answers on their financial impact. If he considers that the “macro-economic cost of regulation weighing on businesses is not known with certainty, varying from simple to doubling”he recognizes the existence of a “consensus” around 60 billion euros.
An estimate that is a little dated
This figure comes from a 2010 report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which assessed the “total cost of administrative burdens on businesses” French companies at 60 billion euros. Or around 3% of 2007 GDP (1,945.7 billion euros), Franceinfo calculated. The institution relies on an analysis carried out between 2006 and early 2008, as part of a European program for measuring and reducing administrative burdens.
Previous studies also came close to this result. “The macroeconomic cost of regulation for France was assessed very generally by the European Union in an old study dating back to 2006 ‘at 3.7%’ of GDP while the reference study from January 2005 presents a range between 2.9% and 3.7% of GDP, based on calculations for 2003”specifies the parliamentary report.
France would thus be within the average for the continent. A comparative European study estimated, for its part, the weight of the French administrative burden at between 2.2% and 2.9% of GDP in 2003. Among our neighbors, this burden varied from 1.9% of GDP (United Kingdom , Sweden, Finland, Denmark) at 4.4% of GDP (Hungary, Greece, Poland, Slovenia).
A higher share of GDP?
The figure of 60 billion in economic losses has therefore passed through the years, until being taken up by Gabriel Attal this week. But this figure has not been updated for at least sixteen years. The cost to businesses could even be underestimated. According to a publication by the Foundation for Research on Administrations and Public Policies (Ifrap), a think tank close to the ultraliberal right, this weight of standards would represent “between 3.5% and 4.5% of French GDP, or between 87 and 112 billion euros”without however detailing the calculation methodology.
Behind these figures, how do regulations impact the business economy? Three main sources of expenditure are highlighted in the Senate report: administrative costs, basic compliance costs and administration and control costs. Guillaume Poitrinal has been campaigning for a relaxation of these standards for many years. The entrepreneur and former co-president of the Business Simplification Council particularly deplores “marketing authorizations in France which are slower than abroad”.
The current Franco-Luxembourgish business leader remembers Thus “from a dressing factory based in Dijon, which could distribute its products throughout Europe… except in France”. Interviewed in 2014 by The echoesPierre Moustial, general director of Urgo at the time, confirmed that his company had been able “market certain products in Germany before doing so in France, while almost all of its production is manufactured there”. “One day is enough for a German to put a product on the market, it takes six months in England and up to three years in France”he illustrated.
Standards are therefore costly for businesses, but they often prove useful. “The main purpose of labor standards is to ensure safetynuance Pascal Caillaud, lawyer in social law, researcher at the CNRS and professor at the University of Nantes. The cost necessary to adapt to a standard will remain lower than that generated by a workplace accident, for example. The standard provides for a hazard”adds this contributor to the legal fact-checking media Les Surligneurs.
A political sea serpent
Sometimes useful, sometimes restrictive, standards remain a major political project. The government’s latest announcements on the launch of a simplification project seem in any case to come from the sea serpent: François Hollande, with his “shock of simplification” in 2013, and Emmanuel Macron, during his first five-year term, had already tackled it. In December 2023, Senator Olivier Rietmann, elected Republican in Haute-Saône and co-author of the June 2023 report on normative sobriety, also tabled a transpartisan bill on this subject.
The text will be examined by Parliament next March. It could make “SME tests” obligatory and create a “Business Impact” system. “We are entrusting an independent authority with the obligation to put through the mill all legislative projects modifying the standards of company life, to measure their effects on SMEs”explains Olivier Rietmann. “If the opinion is unfavorable, the copy must be revised.” This structure would be headed by a High Commissioner for Simplification directly linked to the president. “We believe that there will be a ‘simplification shock’. In reality, it’s a long-term, long-term job.”estimates the elected official.