French General Code of Local Authorities
In forceAll holdings by a municipality in the capital of a commercial company or any other profit-making body whose purpose is not to operate municipal services or activities of general interest under the conditions laid down in Article L. 2253-2.
By way of derogation from the first paragraph of this article, communes and their groupings may, by deliberation of their deliberative bodies, participate in the capital of a société coopérative d'intérêt collectif whose purpose is to provide transport services, under the conditions provided for in articles 19 quinquies to 19 sexdecies A of law no. 47-1775 of 10 September 1947 on the status of cooperation, provided that such participation is justified by a local interest.
As an exception to the first paragraph, municipalities and their groupings may, by deliberation of their deliberative bodies, participate in the capital of a société anonyme or a société par actions simplifiée whose corporate purpose is the production of renewable energy or renewable or low-carbon hydrogen as defined in article L. 811-1 of the Energy Code by facilities located within their territory or, for a municipality, within the territory of a neighbouring municipality or, for a grouping, within the territory of a neighbouring grouping. These shares may be acquired by acquiring holdings in the capital of commercial companies whose sole purpose is to hold the shares in the capital of the companies mentioned in the first sentence of this paragraph. Municipalities and their groupings may grant renewable energy production companies in which they have a direct stake current account advances at market prices and under the conditions provided for in article L. 1522-5 of this code. By way of derogation from the conditions laid down in the same article L. 1522-5, the duration of current account advances may be extended by the municipalities or their groupings to seven years, renewable once, when the energy produced by the production facilities benefits from the support provided for in articles L. 311-12, L. 314-1, L. 314-18, L. 446-2, L. 446-5, L. 446-14 or L. 446-15 of the Energy Code. In the latter case, by way of derogation from the conditions laid down in article L. 1522-5 of this code, the advance may be granted if the total amount of the advances granted by the municipalities or their groupings to all the companies in which the municipalities or their groupings are shareholders does not exceed, with this new advance, 15% of the actual revenue of the operating section of the budget of the municipalities or their groupings. Subsequent advances granted by the communes or their groupings to all the companies of which they are shareholders may not have the effect of raising their total amount above the 15% threshold.
As an exception to the same first paragraph, the City of Paris may automatically subscribe for shares in a local venture capital fund whose purpose is to provide equity capital to companies contributing to climate protection, air and energy quality, improved energy efficiency, waste reprocessing and the development of renewable energies, renewable hydrogen or low-carbon energy as defined in article L. 811-1 of the Energy Code and sustainable mobility under the conditions mentioned in 9° of article L. 4211-1 of this code. It enters into an agreement with the fund management company, setting out in particular the purpose, amount and operation of the fund, as well as the conditions for the return of subscriptions paid in if the fund changes or ceases to operate.
The total amount of the subscription from public funds may not exceed 50% of the total amount of the fund. This limit may be exceeded when a call for expressions of interest is made to encourage private investors to subscribe to fund units.
