Draft organic law no. 270 on budget laws

PUBLIC FINANCES

The draft organic law no. 270 on budget laws, tabled on 11 June 2025 and adopted on 18 June 2025, aims to replace Law no. 841 of 1 March 1968 as amended "which includes a number of concepts that are not clearly defined, provisions that are subject to contradictory interpretations between the Executive and the Assembly, or provisions or constraints that no longer seem realistic in terms of the State's needs in terms of budget operation". (Explanatory memorandum).

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SUMMARY

Draft Organic Law no. 270:

→ updates budgetary concepts:

• definitions (ordinary, primary, amending budget);
• incorporates with reorganisation certain provisions of Law no. 841;
• transforms the three-year public facilities programme into a multi-year public facilities programme (on the grounds that "the most substantial entries in this programme correspond to projects with a deadline of more than 3 years").

→ makes budgetary practice more fluid:

• strict supervision of deposit accounts and year-end operations;
• shortening of the complementary authorisation and authorisation period to 1 month (motivated by the fact that "in the digital age, deadlines designed at a time when communication and information processing were much slower are no longer consistent today");
• option for the co-legislator, in the event of rejection of a primary budget bill, to table a new budget proposal at any time;
• clarification of the conditions under which entries in the multiannual public facilities programme are maintained or withdrawn, as well as what does or does not constitute implementation of projects to be financed by such entries (motivated by the fact that "This point has regularly been the subject of divergent interpretations between the Assembly and the Executive, and the previous wording made it difficult to anticipate how, mechanically, an entry in the programme was maintained or not").

→ increases transparency:

• estimates of revenue and expenditure, and statement of the Constitutional Reserve Fund appended to the initial budgets to improve the information sent to the Parliament ("this provision does nothing more than include in the budget documents information which is otherwise already public, since it is available, for example, in the documents of the Monegasque Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (IMSEE) or in the annual reports of the Supreme Audit Commission") ;
• a chapter in its own right for each entry in the multiannual public investment programme and each special treasury account (individual vote, same restrictions on transfers of appropriations as those made between budget chapters);
• introducing a ban on grouping several operations included in the multiannual public investment programme within the same article (on the grounds that "this practice contravenes the principle of speciality inherent in the State budget");
• introducing the obligation to create a dedicated article for expenditure incurred by each international instrument in which the Principality participates (on the grounds of "making Monaco's participation in various international organisations more transparent, but also to guarantee the Assembly the full exercise of its prerogatives in terms of international agreements, as provided for by article 14 of the Constitution").

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