Ministerial budget accountability: CJR and a future fiscal offence
Ministers should not be criminally liable for policy choices; they may be liable for pre-defined criminal conduct.
Current framework
Article 68-1 makes ministers criminally responsible for crimes and offences committed in office and provides for trial by the Court of Justice of the Republic.
Financial liability gap
Since January 2026, ministers are excluded from the main financial-liability regime listed in Article L.131-2 of the Financial Courts Code, making a careful distinction between criminal, political and financial accountability essential.
Conduct, not policy
The proposed offence focuses on objectively provable conduct such as knowing falsification, deliberate concealment of required information, destruction of mandatory records or intentional circumvention of a final ruling.
Individual responsibility
Liability would depend on each person’s role, knowledge, legal powers and actual decisions.
Working documents and data
Legal and institutional sources
French Constitution, Article 34
French fiscal council — official missions
Organic Budget Act, Article 61