FRANCE
French President, Emmanuel Macron has stopped short of his original plan to axe the venerable Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) that has trained generations of Public Servants and political leaders.
Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, himself an ENA graduate, said he had ordered a five-point plan to implement recommendations in a report on ENA (pictured) and the Public Service generally by lawyer, Frédéric Thiriez.
Mr Thiriez’s Government-ordered report called for “cultural revolutions to allow the Civil Service to adapt to the challenges of the 21st century”.
Mr Philippe said the Government would now work on “social and geographic diversification” of those entering the upper echelons of the Public Service.
“We will open up hitherto closed silos of expertise through the introduction of a common basic training program before specialisation in fields such as health, justice or Local Government,” Mr Philippe said.
“ENA itself will be replaced by a public management school with a broader remit, although the ENA brand will be retained for international purposes, including the training of European Union staff.”
He said trainees for the senior levels of the Public Service would face less academic entry requirements but would need to acquire experience on the ground and do a short stint of military service or a civilian alternative.
“Promotion will no longer be automatic over the course of a career,” the Prime Minister said.
The first year in which the new selection and training measures apply will be 2022.
Four of the last 10 French Presidents, including Mr Macron himself, studied at ENA. It was founded by President Charles de Gaulle after World War II to democratise recruitment of senior Public Servants.
However, entry became so difficult that most of those who succeeded were members of the upper classes of French society who had been to the best schools.
Only about 100 people, 80 of them French, emerge from the ENA each year.
Paris, 20 February 2020
