Sarkozy restarts department debate

The 200-year-old system of departments was again under the spotlight as President Sarkozy said that reform of the administrative structure was inevitable.

The president said: "Looking at the territorial structures is something I might have consider in 2009, because we have arrived at a degree of complexity without precedent. We cannot modernise France with an economic plan and a social plan and then not reform the administration."

Simplifying the administrative structure by removing departments was raised by the Attali Commission’s report among proposals to improve the economy and Work Minister Xavier Bertrand has stated it is “still on the agenda.”

However in January the president said they had too much “historic legitimacy” to remove. Minister for Local Government Alain Marleix said there was "no question of scrapping the departments" but admitted the current system was one of Europe’s most "unfortunately exceptional administrative pile-ups".

Elysée official Claude Guéant said: "There is a problem of liaison between the departments that is worth looking at."

He added local government represented a third of the state’s costs and it was an area where savings could be made. However this did not necessarily mean tiers being scrapped.

He said the president was in no hurry to make changes and wanted first to evaluate the effects of decentralization polices which were introduced in 2003 under Chirac’s presidency.

The department system was set up in 1790 following the Revolution. It was designed to reduce the power of the traditional provinces.

France has several tiers of government ranging from the commune to the commune agglomeration, the department and the region.

Alain Lambert, President of the Departmental Council of the Orne, said local government should not be blamed for the country’s economic problems. "If France is not working it’s because the state is not working.

"If the president banned all the central administration’s circulars, decrees and orders for one month it would double the growth for the month concerned."

Photo: Medef