France's ethics watchdog gets a €500-a-day fine and a new name. Its chief says one key power is missing

France's government on Tuesday sent Parliament two bills to overhaul the body that polices the honesty of its public officials, five months before the 2027 presidential election. The High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP) would get a new power to fine officials who fail to file their asset and interest declarations, up to €500 a day, in place of a criminal penalty that its president says came too late to matter. It would also get a new name: the High Authority for Public Integrity.

The bills also lighten some duties. Officials would report their past activities over three years instead of five, and two declarations would disappear. The authority's president, Jean Maïa, welcomed the texts but said they leave out a power he considers "very important": the right to demand answers from people and companies, which he says the authority needs to track foreign influence. A specialist outlet that covers lobbying reported that the bill also dropped the change lobbyists' critics wanted most.

Quotations from French-language sources in this article are 567politics translations.

What the government presented#

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Laurent Panifous, the minister for relations with Parliament, presented the main bill and a companion organic bill at the weekly Council of Ministers. The main bill was filed in the Senate the same day as text no. 163 and sent to the Senate's law committee. The government's official summary of the meeting says the bill carries out "several recommendations" from a report Maïa handed to the prime minister in May. The same Council meeting also adopted a bill on advertising spending in online news.

The government describes the changes as "targeted adjustments." In its words, the report "concludes that the system built since the law of October 11, 2013 on transparency in public life is solid, while calling for it to be rationalized and simplified." The bill therefore works "without upsetting the existing architecture or the essentially preventive purpose of the High Authority."

The HATVP was created in 2013 after the Cahuzac affair, in which a budget minister who led the fight against tax fraud admitted to hiding an account abroad. It checks the asset and interest declarations of ministers, lawmakers and senior local officials. It reviews moves by former officials into the private sector, known in France as pantouflage. It keeps the register of lobbyists, and since 2024 it has also tracked people acting for foreign powers.

From criminal penalty to daily fine#

The main change concerns officials who do not file. Under current law, failing to send a declaration is a crime. The bill removes that offense. Instead, the authority's president would send an "injunction" giving the official one month to comply. If the official still does not file, "the High Authority may impose a penalty payment whose maximum amount is set at €500 per day and which it may make public," the bill's text says. Lying on a declaration would remain a crime.

The ministry told reporters that the current process "was both heavy and slow to carry out" and that the "rare criminal penalties" came, most of the time, "several years after the end of the duties of the persons concerned," AFP reported. The goal, Panifous said, is that "those who are required to declare actually do so at the very start of or during their term, and not after."

The same daily penalty would apply to lobbyists who fail to report, according to AFP. For them it would be added to existing criminal penalties rather than replace them. AFP also reported that lobbyists would have to declare their activity starting from five meetings with public officials, instead of ten.

What gets lighter#

Several obligations would shrink. The bill's text changes "five" to "three" in the clauses that set how far back an official's declaration of interests must go. So a new minister or lawmaker would list paid activities and posts held over the previous three years instead of five. The government's summary says two filings would be scrapped: the end-of-term declaration of interests for members of the government and the "modifying" asset declaration that officials must now file when their wealth changes substantially. The asset form itself would be simplified, with some categories merged and new reporting thresholds.

Other changes tighten the rules. Crypto-assets would be added to the "blind management" rules that apply to ministers' holdings. People registered as acting for foreign interests would report their activities every six months, rather than every three. And when a former official's move to the private sector carries a "risk of foreign influence," the period during which the authority reviews such moves would rise from three to five years.

The bill also rewrites the crime of illegal taking of interest after leaving office. Today, the offense covers work for companies linked to a former official's public role through a 30% "common capital" test. The government says the bill replaces that test with one aimed at stopping people from "getting around the ban." It also aligns the definition of a conflict of interest for civil servants and military personnel with the one used for local elected officials since a 2025 law. Under it, a conflict arises from "a private interest," where the current text speaks of "public or private interests."

The table compares several proposals in Maïa's May report with what the government's text contains, based on the report's summary, the bill and AFP's account.

Maïa: "our mission could quickly reach its limits"#

Reached by AFP, Maïa welcomed the prime minister's move and said he was glad a parliamentary debate would open. But he pointed to a gap. "One thing that is not in the bills and that is nonetheless a very important element" is "the right of communication," he said.

That right would let the authority get answers when it questions people or companies about their situation, which it cannot always do now. Maïa tied it to the authority's newest job, tracking foreign influence. "If we do not have the means to look for the elements that could characterize certain direct or indirect links, our mission could quickly reach its limits," he told AFP.

His May report made the same case. Its summary says the "very narrowly drawn" right of communication should be extended "to all of its missions," and suggests it could be backed by a penalty payment "under the control of the administrative judge." The report notes that the authority has been given new missions "at a sustained pace" since its creation. The ministry told AFP the bills include no additional resources.

Lobbying: a "devitalized" text?#

The bill also disappointed people who want tighter rules on lobbying, according to Contexte, a specialist outlet that covers public policy and influence. It reported that the final text "no longer includes its flagship provision: the removal of the initiative criterion." Under the current rules, a person counts as a lobbyist only when they take the initiative of contacting an official. Critics, including past heads of the authority, have long said this test lets much lobbying go unrecorded. Contexte said the text still gives the authority a power of administrative sanction "that could hit both lobbyists and elected officials."

Contexte's article is behind a paywall, and 567politics could read only its opening. It mentions the reaction of the Association of Public Affairs Professionals (APPAP), the lobbyists' trade group, but 567politics could not see that reaction. Anticor and Transparency International France, two anti-corruption groups that often comment on such texts, had not published a reaction that 567politics could access.

Timing before the 2027 elections#

The bills are short, and the government has chosen the accelerated procedure, which allows one reading in each chamber before a joint committee. They are due to be examined in the first quarter of 2027, first in the Senate and then in the National Assembly, according to AFP. Panifous said he saw a "positive signal" on the eve of "important deadlines," a reference to the presidential election in April and May 2027 and the legislative elections that will follow. The organic bill applies the same changes to lawmakers and other officials covered by organic law, such as members of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council and magistrates.

1. 2013Law of October 11 creates the HATVP after the Cahuzac affair
2. 2024The authority is given the job of tracking foreign influence
3. May 2026Jean Maïa hands the prime minister a report with proposals
4. Nov. 10, 2026The government files two integrity bills in the Senate
5. Early 2027Senate, then Assembly, to examine the bills
6. 2027Presidential and legislative elections

Source: AFP via France 24, Council of Ministers report, Senate

Most of the changes would apply right away once the law is promulgated. A closing article delays five of its articles by six months, including the crypto-asset rule, the three-year look-back and the six-month reporting for foreign-influence actors.

What the debate will turn on#

Three questions are likely to shape the Senate's work. First, whether a daily fine is a stronger deterrent than a criminal penalty that is rarely used. The government and the authority both argue it is, because it acts while an official is still in office. Others may see the removal of a criminal offense as a softening, even if lying remains a crime. No such criticism had been published in a form 567politics could verify when this story was written.

Second, whether lawmakers will add the right of communication that Maïa wants. Doing so would widen the authority's power to demand information from private people and companies, which raises questions of privacy and due process that the report itself says should be left to an administrative judge.

Third, whether the lobbying rules will be tightened during the debate, by restoring the end of the "initiative criterion" or by other means. Senators and deputies can amend the bill on all three points.

The changes come as foreign interference has become a larger part of French political debate. France this month blamed Iran's Revolutionary Guards for a cyberattack on supermarket refrigerators, and the authority's foreign-influence register is the main tool for recording who works for foreign powers in France. More on the parties and candidates is on our France elections page.

How we reported this#

567politics read the bill as filed in the Senate, the government's official summary of the Council of Ministers, and the summary of the HATVP's May 2026 report. Maïa's comments and the ministry's explanations come from AFP, as published by France 24. The five-meeting threshold for lobbyists is AFP's account; 567politics did not find it in the bill's text and it may be set by decree. Contexte's report could be read only in part. The organic bill's full text was not reviewed. See our methodology for how we source and check stories.

Differing perspectives

Does the government's integrity bill give France's ethics authority the powers it needs?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Add a broad right of communication

  Who holds it: HATVP president Jean Maïa and the authority's May 2026 report

  Maïa welcomes the bill and the coming debate but says it leaves out a very important element: a right to obtain answers from people and companies the authority questions. He argues that without the means to look for direct or indirect links, its foreign-influence mission could quickly reach its limits. The report proposes extending this right to all missions, backed by a penalty payment under a judge's control.

  In their words: AFP via France 24 ↗

• Pass the targeted reform as drafted

  Who holds it: Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and minister Laurent Panifous

  The government says the 2013 system is solid and needs rationalizing, not upheaval. It argues a daily penalty of up to €500, imposed after a one-month injunction, will push officials to file at the start of their term, unlike rare criminal penalties that arrived years later. It pairs lighter paperwork, such as a three-year look-back, with tighter rules on crypto-assets and foreign-influence risks.

  In their words: French government, Council of Ministers report (Nov. 10, 2026) ↗

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