2013 Budget of the French Ministry of Defence

October 2, 2012 defpro.com

PARIS | As announced by the President of the French Republic on 13 July, the Committee on the White Paper on Defense and National Security began working over the summer. The draft defence budget presented today as part of the Finance Bill (PLF) for 2013 is thus necessarily an interim and a transitional budget.

It is an interim budget, until the conclusions of the new white paper will be presented to the President of the Republic at the beginning of 2013, and until the new multi-year military program law can be approved for the 2014-2019 period.

It is a transitional between a model that is no longer financially sustainable and a new military model that is being defined.

Very concretely, this budget allocates total resources of € 31.4 billion, excluding pensions, for the "Defence" defence mission, i.e. the same amount as in 2012.

The 2013 budget marks a change in emphasis, however, in the operational activities of the armed forces, particularly in the context of withdrawal from Afghanistan. Funds dedicated to equipment maintenance, to operations and to fuel in particular, increase by almost € 300 million compared to 2012.

The Defence Minister, who also considers himself as the Minister of defense industries, also ensured that future expenditures and equipment are essentially preserved, although some orders are postponed due to the necessity of redressing public finances. But none irreversibly.

The total amount of funds dedicated to equipping the forces remains stable compared to 2012, amounting to € 16 billion. The budget for basic research will meanwhile increase by 10% while funding for deterrence, in accordance with the commitment of the President of the Republic, is preserved.

Finally, respecting the context of republican continuity Republican, the provisions of the 2009-2014 military programme law, which called for a net loss of 54,923 jobs ministry-wide, will be implemented. A total of 7,234 positions will be eliminated in 2013.

To download the related briefing package (in French) from the MoD website, please go to http://goo.gl/tDp1c.