President Emmanuel Macron promised that he would transform and modernize the French economy and improve the legal and regulatory climate to facilitate the growth of business. To this end, the French Government has put forward 980 proposals to do just that and has launched an online public consultation called PACTE (Plan d'Action pour la Croissance et la Transformation des Entreprises -- Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation)(https://www.pacte-entreprises.gouv.fr/)

The Government published the 980 proposals of the PACTE on 16 January 2017 and has invited companies, individuals and public institutions to comment online on the proposals and to suggest additional innovations. Each participant can create her/his own account or login using her/his Facebook or Gmail account.

The 980 proposals were put together following consultations organized by the Government in the fall of 2017 among key leaders in the economy (including businesses and labor leaders) as well as government and parliamentary leaders.

The PACTE is organized around 9 areas of actions for businesses:

• Create: easing business creation and identification.
• Finance: facilitating companies’ access to financing, for example simplifying access of SMEs to the stock market, and encourage personal savings investment by the French in businesses.
• Develop: encouraging the development of companies, for example by lightening and simplifying social and fiscal obligations for growing businesses.
• Innovate: favoring internal innovation in companies by encouraging partnerships with research departments in universities and by creating a right to innovation for employees.
• Share: encouraging the profit-sharing and participation of employees.
• Transform: encouraging recognition of social objectives inside companies, for example widening the opportunity for entrepreneurs to adopt a broader business purpose that includes social objectives.
• Export: encouraging the internalization of businesses, notably by installing a single administrative entity for exportation.
• Rebound: improving assistance to struggling businesses and procedures of restructuring.
• Transmit: facilitating the ability for employees to buy out their company.

Each of these 9 areas has numerous concrete proposals on which the Government is seeking input as well as additional ideas.

The only readily identifiable drawback to the PACTE consultation is that the site is solely a French language one, creating a language barrier and thereby making it more difficult for international enterprises seeking to analyze the proposals to do so. However, for further details of the plan and its potential implications for your business, please contact Joseph Smallhoover in our Paris office.

[View source.]