Creation of a National Trade Council, headed by Thierry Mandon

The Minister of SMEs and Commerce, Olivia Grégoire, announces the creation of a National Council of Commerce (CNC) that will work on the development of the sector and will be directed by the former Secretary of State for Simplification Thierry Mandon, in an interview on Sunday newspaper.

“As of December 1,” Olivia Grégoire told the weekly, “we are going to set up a National Trade Council,” a “fundamental tool for representing this sector and for working on its development.”

“I asked Thierry Mandon, former Secretary of State for Simplification, to guarantee the management”, he specifies, believing that this “singer of the simplification of the rules (…) will be able to gather”.

“He will meet with all the players and, together, we will define a roadmap, with concrete and rapid proposals starting in June”, continues the minister.

Reflection on the future of commercial spaces

If today “72% of French spending is still done” in commercial areas, these “concentrate energy strainers, generate heat islands, consume agricultural and forest areas to the detriment of biodiversity and are sometimes unsightly,” he says.

“It is time to rethink” these areas that are “today the symbols of the failed promises of the consumer society,” says the minister.

“With the CNC and all the actors, I want us to imagine its transformation to rebuild a business that fits in a densified and mixed place of life with housing, services and offices, all with architectural and environmental innovation firms,” he says.

An “endowment of 24 million euros” will be allocated “in 2023, to carry out 10 to 30 demonstrations”, specifies the minister, who indicates that “the State will not only finance this transformation but will promote it with local entities and accelerate it ”. .”

As for the “Action heart of the city” program dedicated to the revitalization of the cores of medium-sized cities and endowed with an “endowment of 5,000 million euros” of which 20% was allocated to commerce, “a new component ( is) in preparation by the Ministries of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion”, says Olivia Grégoire.