France Action Plan Review 2023-2025

France’s fourth national action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... contains 17 commitments, including a promising effort to create a legal status for citizens who participate in deliberative democracy opportunities. Compared to the previous plan, it has fewer, more targeted commitments, with a clearer focus. Establishing a permanent multistakeholder space could provide effective oversight of commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... implementation.

France’s fourth national action plan includes 17 commitments. They are grouped under three thematic priorities: citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More and democratic innovations practices, citizen engagement to address major public policy challenges, and open government applications of digital technology. The commitments carry forward efforts on participation in healthcare and educationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ... reforms, combating disinformation, and establishing a barometer to communicate public policy outcomes. The action plan also introduces a focus on civic participation, including new commitments on participants in deliberative democracy mechanisms and consultations on local ecological planning. The current action plan has fewer and more focused commitments compared to the 2021-2023 action plan, a marked improvement in action plan design. Furthermore, most commitments include milestones, which supports setting benchmarks, assessing commitment progress and taking stock of successes.

Commitment 5 is the action plan’s most promising commitment. It takes the first step toward creating a protected legal status for citizens participating in mechanisms for deliberative democracy, like citizen assemblies. As with jury duty, providing protections and compensation could improve equal opportunity to participate, regardless of socioeconomic status. This commitment is the first of its kind in the world and could prove revolutionary in French labor law. It forms part of a broader push to combine participatory democracy with representative democracy, building on the progress achieved through the organization of citizens’ conventions, the reform of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council to lead major consultations including civil society, and the support provided to government departments by the Interministerial Center for Citizen Participation.[1]

Many of the commitments continue initiatives that started before the action plan period, without indicating how they would leverage the Open Government Partnership (OGP) process to add value to the reforms. Some commitments also could clarify the scope of their intended reforms. For example, Commitments 8, 9, and 11 continue efforts on participation in healthcare and education reforms. These could be more impactful if implementers concretely define ambitious targets beyond what was accomplished during the previous action plan. Other commitments (1, 6, and 10) focus on civic participation, but could also ensure that the public has new opportunities to take part in government decision making. These could go further to bridge the gap between public consultations and government uptake of citizen suggestions.[2] To illustrate, for Commitment 10 on citizen consultations for local ecological policies, implementers could take the initiative a step further by ensuring that all non-government stakeholders across France’s regions have a direct role in influencing the content of regional ecological plans, rather than simply encouraging regions to involve them.

The OGP process continued to be led by the Interministerial Directorate for Public Transformation. In mid-2023, the Minister for Democratic Renewal and Government Spokesperson became the political lead for OGP at the cabinet level. According to several civil society organizations (CSOs), the directorate and Minister are well-placed to navigate these efforts.[3] In terms of the process for developing the action plan, the Minister and Directorate organized two co-creation workshops in October and November 2023 attended by relevant ministries, civil society organizations, and academics. These workshops were co-organized with two CSOs: Transparency International France and Démocratie Ouverte.[4] The first workshop was limited to 12 CSOs and 12 government experts. Afterwards, all proposals were documented and made available for comment on the online platform, Klaxoon.[5] The second workshop included a larger number of CSOs. The government presented a “what we heard from civil society” document and a list of 37 proposals for commitments. Following the workshops, civil society identified priority commitments, from which government bodies chose which proposals would become commitments in the action plan, based on feasibility. There was no public consultation on the final draft of the action plan. According to the OGP point of contact (POC), this was due to the busy end-of-year season and the need to submit the plan before the end of the year.[6] The plan was adopted and published in December 2023. The POC noted that commitments 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 17 came from discussions with civil society.[7] Other stakeholder priorities were not included in the action plan, including proposals on transparency within lobbying, public procurement, online public information, political financing, and beneficial ownership.[8] The plan was adopted and published in December 2023.

The development of France’s OGP action plan did not meet the minimum requirements for a space for dialogue, a repository, advanced notice and reasoned response as per the OGP Participation & Co-Creation Standards. As these updated standards came into effect in 2022, OGP instituted a 24-month grace period to ensure a fair and transparent transition. As this action plan was co-created and submitted before 31 December 2023, it falls within the grace period and accordingly, the procedural consequences that normally attach to non-compliance with the standards do not apply. France was found to be acting contrary to OGP process during its previous action plan cycle.[9]

Implementation could be impacted by the political climate in France. After the June–July 2024 early legislative electionsImproving transparency in elections and maintaining the independence of electoral commissions is vital for promoting trust in the electoral system, preventing electoral fraud, and upholding the democr..., the President of the Republic was decoupled from his parliamentary majority, now necessitating governing through coalition. Uptake of this action plan’s priorities by the next French government would be essential to achieving results. This would rely on bolstering the Interministerial Directorate for Public Transformation’s resources for coordination and communication on the OGP process.

Promising Commitments

The following review looks at one commitment that the IRM identified as having the potential to realize the most promising results. Promising commitments address a policy area that is important to stakeholders or the national context. They must be verifiable, have a relevant open government lens, and have modest or substantial potential for results. This review also provides an analysis of challenges, opportunities, and recommendations to contribute to the learning and implementation process of this action plan.

Table 1. Promising Commitments

[1] France’s 2024-2026 National Action Plan, 3 January 2024, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/france-action-plan-2023-2025-december/.
[2] Pierre-Yves Guihéneuf, “La participation citoyenne, un fait minoritaire” [Citizen participation, a minority fact], (démocratieS, 9 December 2023), https://democraties.media/les-citoyens-qui-veulent-participer-une-petite-minorite/.
[3] Dorian Dreuil (Advocacy and Campaigns Manager for Démocratie Ouverte), interview with IRM, 4 June 2024; Kevin Gernier (Advocacy Manager with TransparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More International France), interview with IRM, 30 May 2024.
[4] Mayara Soares Faria (International Relations and Open Government Advisor at the Cabinet of the Interministerial Directorate for Public Transformation), interview with IRM, 15 April 2024.
[5] Klaxoon is available at: https://klaxoon.com/fr.
[6] Faria, interview.
[7] Id.
[8] Anticor, “Partenariat pour un gouvernement ouvert : les propositions d’Anticor” [Partnership for an open government : Anticor’s proposals], 16 February 2024, https://www.anticor.org/2024/02/16/partenariat-pour-un-gouvernement-ouvert-les-propositions-danticor/.
[9] Open Government Partnership, “France – Contrary to Process Letter (August 2022)” 31 August 2022, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/france-contrary-to-process-letter-august-2022/.