The National Assembly overwhelmingly approved on Thursday, January 23, 2025, a socialist bill aimed at giving all students access to one-euro meals. MAXPPP – GUILLAUME BONNAUD
All students will now have access to one-euro meals in restaurants and points of sale managed by the Crous. The system, currently reserved for scholarship students and students in precarious situations, is estimated at 90 million euros per year.
That's it! Students will be able to eat for one euro. The National Assembly approved by an overwhelming majority on Thursday a socialist bill aimed at giving all students access to one-euro meals. This text extends to all students one-euro meals in restaurants and points of sale managed by the Crous (Regional Centers for University and School Works), currently reserved for scholarship students and those in precarious situations. A measure whose cost is estimated at 90 million euros per year, according to the rapporteur.
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36% of students say they have often skipped a meal
The explanatory statement of the text recalls that “36% of students say they have often or occasionally skipped meals due to lack of money”, according to an Ifop survey from October 2024.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000While the Minister for Higher Education and Research, Philippe Baptiste, acknowledged that a “growing proportion” of students are using food aid or skipping meals “sometimes for financial reasons”, he said he disagreed with the bill. “I believe in the justice of a system where everyone contributes according to their means”, he said, also pointing to a “considerable loss of revenue” for the Crous network, estimated at 50 million euros. He also stressed the need to develop the offer, while today “too many students give up eating because of endless queues”.
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More than 500,000 students have benefited from it
This argument, aimed at reserving the system for the most vulnerable, was taken up on all the benches of the common core, the left preferring to evoke the need to promote the emancipation of students from their family, and the “holes in the racket” in the scholarship system. Note that the RN voted for the measure, with MP Bruno Clavet defending in vain an amendment to reserve these meals for French students.
Two years ago, an almost identical bill, already put forward by Fatiha Keloua, was rejected by one vote, after the presidential camp, hostile to the measure, had called up the troops for the final vote. Over the 2023-2024 academic year, more than 500,000 students benefited from these meals (out of a total of 2.965 million students in France), according to the Ministry of Higher Education.