Public Services: Council of State formulates 12 proposals to bring administration and citizens closer together

Proximity, pragmatism and trust: these are the “ingredients” proposed by the Council of State to make public services more efficient and closer to citizens, in its annual study presented on Wednesday to Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne.

“We can all see that there is a sense of distance between public action and users,” Vice President of the Council of State Didier-Roland Tabuteau said during a press conference on Wednesday. “Understanding who is doing what has become difficult,” he added a few hours later in front of Elizabeth Bourne. “Today, the administration needs 17 A3 pages to explain the distribution of powers between local authorities. »

Faced with what it calls a “gap” between administration and citizens (only 28% of French people trust government, compared to an average of 41% in OECD countries), the institution puts forward twelve proposals. To meet the “proximity imperative” of public services, the authors of the study ask for digital procedures to be redoubled “not only with physical access” at the counter, “but also and above all by telephone”, with “a reasonable and transparently displayed expectation”. once”.

The Supreme Administrative Court also calls for the simplification of administrative forms and language. “The tax sphere offers a field of possible improvements in this area,” notes the Council of State, whose decisions are often themselves formulated in technical terms. “Sometimes a picture is worth more than a long text,” recalls Martin de Boisdeffre, President of Reports and Research, citing the 1990 African horse sickness decree as an example, which was illustrated with a much more expressive picture than the text of the decree.

Utilities at train stations?

The study also proposes to bring public services closer to where the French live, for example by installing them at stations visited by “ten million travelers” daily. Didier-Roland Tabuteau urges the state to “bet on local solutions” by associations or communities in direct contact with users. He cites the example of the “solidarity doctors” of Croesus, general practitioners who have set up two medical offices where they take turns providing access to medical care in this medical wilderness.

“If we seek to impose unique top-down solutions without regard to specificities and local issues, we always run the risk of not being there,” Elizabeth Bourne admitted Wednesday evening in her speech to the Council of State. More broadly, the prime minister wanted “public speaking” to “carry consequences” because “for many of our fellow citizens, words and actions no longer match” and breed “distrust.”

“Decisions are being made everywhere, measures are being announced, resources are being allocated, but too often the French don’t see it, they don’t feel it,” she lamented, declaring, on the contrary, her “obsession” with “results”.

The Council of State’s next annual study, to be published in September 2024, will focus on “sovereignty,” said Didier-Roland Tabuteau.