Military programming act 2024-2030 and its 2026 update

Bill presented in the Council of Ministers[3]

Debate in the Assemblée nationale (accelerated procedure)[1]

Bill adopted at first reading by the Assemblée nationale[11]

Bill adopted at first reading by the Senate[11][12]

Assemblée nationale adopts the joint committee text[11]

Final adoption by Parliament (Senate vote on the joint committee text)[1]

Constitutional Council decision no. 2023-854 DC[2]

Referred by sixty deputies on 13 July 2023. Articles 14, 17, 20, 36, 45, 46, 48, 50, 52, 59 and 69 are struck down because they were added at first reading without even an indirect link to the bill as tabled, the Council not ruling on their substance; article 22, whose adoption procedure was challenged, is upheld.

Promulgated on 1 August and published in the Journal officiel[1][2]

After the Constitutional Council struck down eleven articles unrelated to the original bill (decision of 28 July 2023), without ruling on their substance.

NATO summit in The Hague: allies commit to 5% of GDP by 2035, including at least 3.5% for core defence[4]

Allies will allocate at least 3.5% of GDP a year to core defence requirements and account for up to 1.5% of GDP a year for, among other things, critical infrastructure, networks, civil preparedness and resilience, innovation and the defence industrial base.

Speech to the armed forces: the President announces +€3.5bn in 2026 and +€3bn in 2027[5]

« We will therefore devote €64bn to our defence in 2027 », twice the 2017 budget: the doubling planned for 2030 is brought forward to 2027. An update of the programming act is announced for the autumn.

Opinion of the High Council of Public Finance (HCFP) on the update bill[6]

The HCFP finds that the public finance programming act (2023-2027) « is not an operative reference »: its spending path has not been kept in recent years, so the update cannot be compatible with it. The 36 bn€ of extra credits over 2026-2030 are exposed to risks (carry-overs of about 9 bn€, outstanding payments of about 140 bn€). Keeping to the net primary expenditure path committed to at European level will require a strong adjustment on the rest of public finances: in 2027, spending outside programming acts and interest could rise by at most 11 bn€, against 25 bn€ in 2026.

Opinion of the Conseil d’État on the update bill[7]

The Conseil d’État notes that, unlike the 2023 act, the increase is front-loaded (2026-2028), which it considers contributes to the programming’s sincerity, but that at the 2030 horizon the figures « are subject to many uncertainties ».

Update bill presented in the Council of Ministers (bill no. 2630)[19][8][13]

Update bill adopted at first reading by the Assemblée nationale[13][14]

Under the accelerated procedure, after a floor debate opened on 4 May 2026 (adopted text no. 287).

The Senate does not adopt the article carrying the extra €36bn[16][15]

At the sitting of 2 June (closed at 0:30 on 3 June), the Senate first adopted, by 168 votes to 163, identical Socialist and government amendments returning to the Assemblée nationale’s €36bn instead of the €50bn written by the committee — the 130 Les Républicains senators who voted opposed them —, then article 2 thus amended was not adopted.

Senate adopts the update bill at first reading, without its central article[14][15][17]

297 votes for, 33 against, as announced in the chamber (296 for after a correction of votes).

Senate adopts the joint committee text, which keeps the extra €36bn[14][15][10]

309 votes for, 34 against.

Final adoption of the update act by the Assemblée nationale[18][13]

375 votes for, 113 against, 2 abstentions (public vote no. 7905).

Constitutional Council decision no. 2026-907 DC: referred provisions upheld[9]

Referred by sixty deputies on 6 July 2026, the Council upholds the contested articles (drone jamming, algorithmic intelligence processing, prior declarations by former intelligence agents and for activities on behalf of a foreign entity, « national security alert » state) and strikes nothing down.

Update act no. 2026-791 promulgated[10][14]

Update act published in the Journal officiel[10][9]

In force as updated by Act no. 2026-791 of 16 August 2026: +€36bn over 2026-2030, updated total of €435.7bn.

2027 finance bill before Parliament: the yearly credits are voted there, not in the programming act[20][21][10]

Tabled in the Assemblée nationale on 1 October 2026 (bill no. 3210). According to the armed forces ministry, it provides €63.4bn for the « Défense » mission (excluding pensions), €6.5bn more than in 2026; the updated programming act planned €63.3bn for 2027.