Question 13906 — businesses

Summary

Mr. Philippe Juvin draws the attention of the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial, Energy and Digital Sovereignty to a possible change of heart by the Council of State on the nature of repayable advances. Reclassification of these as “repayable loans” would endanger many start-ups. Article R. 5141-13 of the Labor Code defines the repayable advance as follows: “The repayable advance is a loan without interest financed by the State and allocated, after expertise of the business creation or takeover project, to one or more natural persons who undertake to integrate its amount into the capital of the company created or taken over or to use it for the operation of the individual company created or taken over", when article L1511-2 of the general code of local authorities defines the role of the region in the allocation of these aid to businesses. In 2022, the Council of State specified in a fact sheet that “repayable loans and advances aim to provide businesses with the temporary provision of funds. The loans are intended to be systematically repaid by the company, unlike repayable advances, which will only be repaid in full if the research and innovation project they finance is successful. Gold in a dispute between entrepreneur and region, the 3rd chamber of the Council of State relies on its new definition from a sheet dated 2026, written as follows: "However, certain advances are only fully repayable in the event of success of the project they finance". The public rapporteur therefore reclassified the advance as a debt due despite the failure of the research and development project and applied it in a manner retroactive to a contract signed in 2014. If this legal decision creates great uncertainty among entrepreneurs and investors, this case law questions more broadly the solidity of French legislation in matters of entrepreneurship, while the executive has shown itself determined to encourage risk-taking and business creation. The MP questions the Minister on the measures he intends to take to offer a clear, stable and protective legislative framework for business creators and more particularly those who invest in R and D. In addition, he questions the relevance of the creation of a tool inspired by the participatory loan model, where the entrepreneur would repay the capital at the most opportune time while the interest would be subject to criteria such as the profit generated.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

Timeline

1. 31 March 2026

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• Philippe Juvin · auteur

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