PARLIMENTARY RESERVE

The 24^th February 2016 at 6,30AM France time (Breizh-info.com) National -Assemblée should communicate, within days, the amounts awarded by the deputies and senators associations and communities that they decided to pamper in 2015 with the parliamentary reservation.

On this occasion, the Associated Taxpayers Association launches a major national petition to the President of the Republic to end "a practice of patronage." Parliamentary reserve is an annual prize pool of nearly 90 million euros for members and 58 million for senators or elected by 130,000 euros.

With this money, each elected can subsidize associations or communities in his constituency, which gives this a strong electoral influence elected because of his good will often depend on the survival of associations which sometimes struggle to live without public funds, which speaks volumes about the interest they generate from the taxpayer.

"This practice is justified neither by the mission of parliamentarians who are elected national and not local, nor the proper management of public funds, nor, even, and especially, for the impartiality that the French are entitled to expect elected officials, who live with their money." says the associated Taxpayers petition.

"The parliamentary reservation has so far elected to distribute patronage way of subsidies that could be returned to taxpayers in the form of tax cuts. Indeed, public money is our money, and this, elected officials who live cannot ignore it any longer. It is your guarantee institutions duty to remind them. The parliamentary reservation, in addition to being expensive with the money of the French, is a denial of democracy: it allows elected up to campaign at taxpayer expense and to the detriment of citizens who could possibly want to run against them; how could they do match for tens or hundreds of thousands of euros in subsidies poured by the incumbents? "

For Eudes Baufreton, CEO of Associated Taxpayers, "the role of a parliamentarian is to vote the law, control government action and evaluate public policies, not to distribute the money of French investments in often patronage, making and campaign at taxpayer expense. In the current context of fiscal overkill of French on one hand, but also the need to reduce public spending (56% of GDP) on the other hand, it is essential to eliminate the costly and unnecessary parliamentary reservation".

The petition, which has collected 2000 signatures in ten days, is also supported by favorable elected to the disappearance of this distribution blind public money. This is the case of the member for Vendée Véronique Besse (MPF), which has filed a bill to abolish the parliamentary reservation.

"The role of parliamentarians is not to grant subsidies. They are elected to represent the nation. This permanent suspicion of clientalism very harmful to the image of all the elect "she says. Michel Canevet, senator of UDI-UA Finistère), recalls that "specific rules have been implemented and must be observed (e.g. the amount requested must not exceed 50% of the duty of the project, the total public aid must not exceed 80% of the amount excluding transaction fees and minimal participation of the project leader should be 20% of total public financing ...). ".

In Britain we have the past year raised the allocation of the reserve by the deputies, and soon have the opportunity to provide a detailed analysis of the 2015 destination of these public funds. Some politicians have already anticipated this publication, as Jean-Luc Bleuven, MP (PS) of Finistere, which divided the money between 7 and 20 community associations, or as Philippe Nogues, MP (left) Morbihan.