The Finance Commission of the National Assembly adopted, on Tuesday, October 29, an amendment to the finance bill that generalizes the rate of 1 euro per meal at the Crous to all students. The 1 euro meal was introduced in 2020 for scholarship students and has since been extended to non-scholarship students in precarious situations.
The amendment, presented by the Ecologist and Social group, generalizes it for the benefit of all students, with an estimated cost of 90 million euros per year, but its application will depend on the final approval of the finance bill by the National Assembly.
“Today, one in three young people surveyed say they often skip meals on a regular basis.”declared the deputy (Socialist Party) Céline Hervieu to defend the amendment. A little earlier, the French deputy Marie Mesmeur had defended a similar proposal, but for an estimated amount of 400 million euros, recalling that “Only one in four students has a scholarship.”
Opposite Renaissance, favorable RN
For the Renaissance group, the special rapporteur Thomas Cazenave opposed this measure, described as “very regressive” AND “the most unfair thing there is”. “Why offer a free meal to all students, regardless of family configuration, regardless of parental income? »asked. To which the deputy (LFI) Aurélien Lecoq responded with the argument that “The principle of universality of law is a profoundly republican principle that is applied in many of our public services”. The deputy of the National Rally, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, announced that his party “We will vote for the 1 euro food plan”.
The second special rapporteur, Charles Sitzenstuhl of Renaissance, voted against, arguing that “the prices at the Crous are social or even very social prices”that represent a “substantial effort made by public authorities and therefore by the taxpayer”. Mr. Cazenave had previously explained that a meal at Crous is “3.30 euros for everyone regardless of their income, and 1 euro for scholarship recipients or students in precarious situations, for a cost price of the meal that is 8 euros”.
