Star Metro - French parliament adopts bill to bring back village bars

France had some 200,000 cafes in 1960, often serving as the social centre of gravity for communities around the country.

By 2015, that number had fallen to just 36,000, with most closures in rural areas, according to a 2017 report from the France Boissons industry body and the CREDOC consumer studies agency.

The new legislation, which would loosen strict restrictions on new bar permits to sell hard liquor, does away with "an old and obsolete legal framework," said the centrist lawmaker behind the bill, Guillaume Kasbarian.

He and other lawmakers argued the change was needed to bring back cafes and bars to remote countryside areas, thus cementing social ties, boosting local economies and creating jobs.

The drinking spots in question "are, above all, places for people to come together in very rural areas and in a society where people have a tendency to close in on themselves," one parliamentarian, Fabien Di Filippo, said.

Under French law, a type-4 alcohol licence in a bar or bistro allows the consumption of alcoholic beverages, including those containing more than 18 percent alcohol, such as spirits.

But no new such permit can be created, and aspiring bar managers must often wait until another type-4 bar closes permanently to acquire their licence from them.

The new legislation would allow cafe owners in rural municipalities with less than 3,500 inhabitants that do not already have a type-4 bar to request a brand-new permit instead of waiting for an old one to become free. The local mayor would have the right to approve -- or deny -- the request.

The measure was adopted nearly unanimously by the French parliament, with 156 lawmakers backing it and just two voting against. It now has to be approved by the Senate.

- Additional bar -

While the original idea of the bill was to allow just one type-4 bar to open in a village lacking one, an amendment added by the centre-right MoDem party gave municipal authorities the power to approve one additional bar.

It is difficult to estimate how many villages could benefit from the law, but 31,000 out of 35,000 rural municipalities have fewer than 3,500 inhabitants, according to the association of French mayors.

Detractors of the bill fear a rise in alcohol consumption in areas where social services to help people fight addiction are not readily available.

They have questioned why the law needs to allow the consumption of spirits in villages, and why a type-3 licence that allows the selling of beer and wine is not sufficient.

Some lawmakers also expressed concern the new legislation might be broadened in the future to allow bigger villages or towns to authorise more bars selling spirits.

Supporters have said the measure is important to draw residents out of isolation, and that hard liquor is available for sale at nearby supermarkets anyway.

Alcohol causes 49,000 deaths each year, according to the French health ministry's website.

L.Pelletier--SMC