How does the Joint Committee work?
This Wednesday, March 15, seven MPs and seven Senators will meet to find a compromise on the pension reform project
The CMP, a legislative instrument
Created under the Ve Republic and in accordance with Article 45 of the Constitution, the Joint Joint Committee makes it possible to settle an ongoing disagreement on a draft or proposed law between the two parliamentary chambers. Fourteen parliamentarians representing the political balances in the National Assembly and Senate meet. For this CMP, the right and the presidential camp will be in the majority, so 10 MPs will be in favor of pension reform and 4 against. This will make it possible to find a consensus on this reform, which in particular provides for the extension of the retirement age.
The CMP can be “final”, ie an agreement is reached and the text goes directly to the National Assembly to finalize the conclusions of that agreement. At this point, only the government has the power to change the reform project. If no agreement is reached, the CMP is considered “inconclusive” and the text goes back to the parliamentary shuttle. According to the Senate website, since 1959, two out of every three CMPs have been successful, and 20% of the passage of legislation results from an agreement in the CMP.
Behind closed doors, in the thick of things
As an eighth day of interprofessional mobilization against pension reform takes place, the two chambers must reach this historic agreement on a reform that has stoked controversy in the country for months. In fact, the strike continues, garbage cans are piling up in the streets, garbage collectors and workers in the energy sector are demonstrating vehemently in their resistance. However, we note a slowdown in the mobilization of workers in the transport sector, who have nonetheless led this large-scale strike.
If the CMP is inconclusive, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne will use 49.3, which allows the Council of Ministers to decide alone whether to adopt a law without going through Parliament. 49.3, this much-criticized admission of weakness reaffirms the primacy of the executive. Still, Parliament has 48 hours to table a motion of no confidence in a last-ditch effort to stop the government from pushing through this pension reform.
