Sunday opening debated again
Controversy over relaxing trading regulations returns on the back of a new tourism law.
THE controversial question of relaxing Sunday opening is back on the political agenda.
While the idea was shelved by the government at the end of last year following opposition from inside the ruling UMP party, two amendments to a new law on the development and modernisation of tourism services has brought it back into the spotlight.
Two centre party senators have proposed amendments. One suggests that all shops situated in tourist “zones or communes” be allowed to open on Sunday, while another proposes that opening be allowed in certain areas in the largest cities which have exceptional amounts of shopping trade – like the Champs Elysées or the large Paris shopping streets known as the Grands Boulevards.
The UMP group in the Senate has said they are “in favour” of these ideas and the government is said to be sympathetic to the second option.
UMP spokesman Frédéric Lefebvre said: “There is a real expectation from the professionals and employees on the ground.”
In December MPs debated a proposal to allow Sunday working in certain commercial zones but dropped the idea after opposition.
UMP General Sectretary Xavier Bertrand has insisted recently that the idea has not been forgotten and the matter would be examined again “before the autumn”.
Photo: AFP
