which is extended up to these past few weeks

MPs begin this afternoon to consider the draft law reforming the boards of trade, adopted by the Council of Ministers on 29 July, at the end of a long process of consultation... which is extended up to these past few weeks.

The text reinforces the role of their Permanent Assembly, the ACFCI, as national head of the network and, especially, regional chambers (RCCI), previously of the more discrete in the organization. The strengthening of the regional level must allow a better pooling of means of rooms local or "land".

It no longer has the originally planned binding. The Interior of a region, regional KICS, which will continue to decrease to to nearly 125 at the end of the year, in fact will be able to choose the services that they consolidate. "The goal is to develop common policies and share the back-office", said the President of the ACFCI, Jean-François Bernardin, main architect of the reform with the Secretary of State for trade, Hervé Novelli. "But we would like to keep the right of initiative in the territorial chambers", continued the President of the ACFCI. An essential point for the President of the Chamber of commerce and industry of Marseille, Jacques Pfister. "We are born of the land and we remain but should be that we can form a network, find a good balance between the local and national ..." "without disappearing into a regional gimmick", continues Jacques Pfister, also very active in the establishment of an association of Metropolitan Chambers with the assemblies of the cities tomorrow organizes a symposium on this theme.

For a strong local

The strengthening of the national structure and, especially, regional chambers was poorly experienced by a number of Presidents of historic Chambers who tried to mount an alternative reform project. "There are 150 rooms and would have required 150 reforms," explained Jean-François Bernardin, at the height of the frond of the network. A long work of coordination in the field convinced him to defend the maintenance of a strong local government guarantee representativeness of elected officials. But the strongest resistance came from the Chamber of commerce of Paris and its President, Pierre Simon. Summoned to the Elysee Palace on March 8, the protagonists have been recalled that there would be no alternative project and that it was time to agree.

This last issue has led to a special scheme for Ile-de-France with a regional Chamber of eight delegations (one per Department) without legal personality. To the chagrin of the CCI of Seine-et-Marne and Essonne (respectively sixth and eighth of France) who feel cheated. "We have not the same taxation than Paris", storm the President of the CCI of Seine-et-Marne, Jean-Robert Jacquemard, who fear that an increase of taxes for its members. Same concerns for Gérard Huot, his counterpart in Essonne. "We do not block but we want to retain the possibility to act," said elected officials stressing the remoteness of these departments of Paris. Backed by local politics, they build now on an amendment to keep their legal personality.

The text will then come quickly in the Senate so consular, delayed one year by the reform, elections can be held early December.