Increase in the budget for law enforcement and civil protection in 2018

The National Assembly has approved a 1.5 per cent increase for the 2018 security budget. In 2018, the Ministry of the Interior will organise a recruitment drive for professional firefighters and recruit 1,000 police officers, 500 gendarmes and 400 DGSI staff, as well as the necessary personnel to form the everyday security police force. For the refurbishment of police stations and brigades, the increase will be 5.4 per cent for the national police and 9 per cent for the gendarmerie. The civil protection budget will be used to renew the fleet of water-bombing aircraft, and a government amendment provides for the payment of compensation to staff involved in managing the hurricanes that struck the French West Indies. The other amendment adopted concerns the requirement for motorway tolls to be waived for all priority public service vehicles responding to emergencies. Previously, the waiver of tolls was at the discretion of the motorway operators.