Section 6: Financial responsibility

When it is consulted pursuant to IV of article L. 1611-10, the Consultative Commission on the Financial Responsibility of Local Authorities shall give its opinion within three months of the date of receipt, by its chairman, of its referral by the Prime Minister.

The commission's referral, which may be communicated electronically, includes:

1° A copy of the judgment against France by the Court of Justice of the European Union on the basis of Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and, where applicable, a statement of the grounds on which the infringement proceedings are based ;

2° A memorandum setting out the extent of the obligations under European Union law whose performance is not ensured and the legal and factual elements capable of establishing that the failure to fulfil these obligations falls wholly or partly within the remit of the local authorities or their groupings and public establishments ;

3° An assessment of the lump sum or penalty payment that the Court of Justice of the European Union is likely to order to be paid and a proposal for sharing the cost of this sum or penalty payment between, on the one hand, the State and, on the other hand, the various local authorities, their groupings and public establishments concerned ;

4° A copy of the documents exchanged between the State and the territorial authorities, their groupings and their public establishments relating to the performance of obligations under European Union law whose breach is alleged or has been established;

5° All documents likely to justify the evaluation retained by the State of the lump sum or penalty payment likely to be ordered by the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as the distribution of this sum or penalty payment between the State and the various territorial authorities, their groupings and public establishments concerned.

This referral is sent to the secretariat of the commission, which forwards it to all the members of the commission as well as to the local authorities, their groupings and their public establishments involved, along with the accompanying documents.

The commission gives its opinion after having received written or oral observations from the local authorities, their groupings and public establishments involved, from the State departments concerned and, where applicable, from any person or body whose expertise it deems useful to its work. Failure to produce these observations within the time limit or on the dates set by the commission does not prevent it from continuing its work and issuing its opinion.

The opinion issued is sent, along with the reasons for it, by the chairman of the commission to the Prime Minister and to all the local authorities, their groupings and their public establishments involved.

In the absence of an express opinion issued by the commission within the time limit set by the first paragraph, its opinion is deemed to have been issued.