The market agreement of January 19, 2022 on the rescheduling of State Guaranteed Loans (PGE) was renewed for three additional years. If “more than 50 billion credits have been fully repaid out of the 107 billion euros granted to VSEs/SMEs since 2020”, indicates the Ministry of the Economy, the government has nevertheless decided, for certain companies which could individually encounter difficulties. difficulties in repaying their bank loans, including their PGE, to spread it out.
Concretely, this PGE restructuring system can be done via Credit Mediation, a service of the Banque de France responsible for supporting VSEs/SMEs who encounter difficulties in repaying their bank debts in finding amicable solutions with their bank. Last December, the CPME revealed that a third of VSEs and SMEs having subscribed to an EMP said they were “encountering increasing difficulties in repaying it”.
In 2022 and 2023, this system made it possible to support around 560 companies which were able to spread their EMP over a period of 2 to 4 additional years compared to the initial schedule, with maintenance of the State guarantee, in parallel the reorganization of other bank financing.
Among the prerequisites to be able to benefit from it, not being in a situation of cessation of payments and presenting commercial and financial prospects which ensure its sustainability. The system, which was launched by the government in 2020 to help businesses overcome the consequences of the health crisis, had already been renewed for the first time in January 2023.
Simplifying life for businesses is still on the agenda
Another major project is the simplification of standards and procedures. If “this cannot be resolved with the wave of a magic wand” warns Bruno Le Maire’s office, the latter warned that everything would be done to “make it simpler, make it more direct” and “improve relations with administration”.
Pursuing the dual objective of a “massive wave of simplification” and “a transformation of the relationship between administration and businesses”, Bruno Le Maire was pleased to have collected 730,000 votes and 5,400 proposals on the public consultation launched on make.org, including 16 to 17% on the subject of social rights, labor law and apprenticeship.
“This shows the demand from business leaders on these subjects,” explains one within his office. The opportunity for the tenant of Bercy to reiterate his commitment to changing relations between businesses and administration: “Our administration must no longer be facing entrepreneurs, it must be with them. She must not defend her place, she must put herself in their place. It must not sanction, it must serve.” The minister announced that the first proposals will be made on the subject next March.
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And invite companies to continue to increase wages
On a social level, in order to achieve full employment, i.e. 5% unemployment by the end of the five-year term, Bruno Le Maire urged business leaders to “achieve a real cultural revolution in the work of those over 55 years” and to take their responsibilities: “You must break with this practice from another time – the disguised retirement of your oldest employees”.
For him, “postponing the “senior sector” by two years will not be enough”. Recalling that these senior employees “are not a burden, they are an opportunity. Their experience is valuable. Their know-how must be transmitted”, he insisted on the fact that the country should not resign itself to the fact that “the employment rate of over 55s in France is 15 to 20 points lower than what it is in other European countries. It’s a real human scandal.”
Still on the social aspect, the tenant of Bercy finally thanked the business leaders who had increased salaries in 2023 and invited them to “continue on this path in 2024”, using “all the instruments at their disposal: tax-exempt bonuses, overtime.”
More broadly, and in order to recreate a dynamic of wages in France, the minister called for success in completing the reflection on reductions in charges “to fight against the minimum wage of our society”.
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Charlotte de Saintignon
2024-01-15 18:39:14
#Companies #reschedule #EMP
