Olivier Babeau: Minister Stanislas Guerini has launched a courageous idea. But such a measure would only be a symbol without real significance if it is not part of a much broader reform of the civil service.
France maintains a much higher number of public officials than all comparable countries. We have 85 civil servants per 1000 inhabitants, compared to 56 per 1000 in Germany. This number has grown much faster than the population over the past thirty years. According to Fipeco, if we start from a base of 100 in 1997, while the population is only at 114 in 2021, the local civil service ( excluding transfers of state personnel) is at 145 and theCivil Service is at 85 per 1000. The civil service is also at 145 per 1000 people in France, according to the French Ministry of Economy and Finance. This is higher than in Germany, where it is at 56 per 1,000, and in the UK, where the figure is at 55 per 1000, and it is even higher in the Netherlands.