Ministry of Economy and Finance (France)

The building of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Budget

The French Ministry of Economy and Finance (French Ministère de l'Economie et des Finances , MINEFI ; before June 2012 Ministère de l'Économie, des Finances et de l'Industrie , German Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry ) is one of the most important Key Ministries of the Fifth Republic . It dates back to 1561 and the position of Surintendant des Finances . Metonymically it is named after the Bercy district in Paris .

The building

The ministry was traditionally located in the north-west wing of the Louvre . In the course of the conversion of the Louvre into a museum area under François Mitterrand , it has been located in a spectacular new building by the architect Paul Chemetov in the Bercy district (between the Seine and Gare de Lyon ) since 1988 . In the times when the ministry was split up, all ministries usually had their seat in the building; accordingly, the term Bercy has become metonymically used in French for government responsibility in economic and financial policy, without distinguishing in detail between the ministries.

Function and development

The special importance results from three factors: The tradition of centralism knows no financial sovereignty of the departments or regions ; many important companies were or are nationalized ( banks , energy supply, etc.); the prime minister is not the ruler of foreign and security policy (but the president ) and therefore no more powerful than the finance minister.

The term “economy” in the name of the ministry is traditionally to be understood macroeconomically . In most of the governments of the Fifth Republic, responsibility for economic policy for individual sectors lay in other departments: there was usually a ministry of industry, and often an independent ministry for trade and crafts. In the Barre III and Bérégovoy cabinets, responsibility for budgetary policy has also been transferred to an independent ministry. In his first two administrations, Raymond Barre ran the ministry himself.

For the first time, a ministry was formed in the Cresson government , which included complete responsibility for financial, budgetary and economic policy ( Ministère de l'Économie, des Finances et du Budget under Pierre Bérégovoy ); Responsibility was divided up again in the subsequent governments. During the Balladur government , the ministry lost its title of “finance” for the first time in the history of the republic and became Ministère de l'Économie . In the following governments there was again the designation "Economy and Finance". From the Jospin government onwards , the ministry was given comprehensive responsibility for all economic policy for 10 years, which was only abolished in principle under President Nicolas Sarkozy when responsibility for the budget was split off again. Under President François Hollande , the traditional Ministry of Economy and Finance was initially re-established, while responsibility for industry was placed in an independent ministry ( Ministère du Redressement productif ). After the government reshuffle in April 2014, the ministry was split up again: Michel Sapin headed the Ministère des Finances et des Comptes Publics , Arnaud Montebourg and then Emmanuel Macron headed the Ministry of Economic Affairs ( Ministère de l'Économie, du Redressement productif et du Numérique or Ministère de l'Économie, de l'Industrie et du Numérique ). After Macron's resignation in August 2016, it was merged again.

In the current Cazeneuve government , the ministry is accordingly responsible for almost all financial and economic policy; only the responsibility for foreign trade resides in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Under Minister Michel Sapin , four state secretaries are responsible for the individual subject areas: Christian Eckert for the state budget, Martine Pinville for trade, craft, consumers and the social economy , Axelle Lemaire for digitization and innovation and Christophe Sirugue for industry.