9 ways France plans to simplify bureaucracy for residents

Those in France who need extra support with their admin will soon have more options after Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced plans to create 300 extra drop-in centres to give aid.

The aim is that there will be 3,000 so-called France Services centres available by 2026, the PM said, in a bid to “de-bureaucratise” France. New centres will open in 300 “medium-size towns”, he said.

The aim is that no-one should be more than 20 minutes’ drive from a France Services centre, said Mr Attal.

He shared the measures during a speech in Sceaux (Hauts-de-Seine), as part of a plan designed to “transform” the public space, and make administrative jobs easier and simpler.

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As well as the extra France Services centres, Mr Attal also announced eight other measures:

1. Simple language: The launch of the ‘Parlez-Nous Français’ scheme, which aims to simplify the language on admin forms and websites, to make them easier for everyone to understand 

2. Waiting times: The aim to halve waiting times for admin tasks such as renewing a passport or ID card

3. Complaints: Widespread introduction of the filing of admin complaints online

4. Phone operators: The aim to have many more telephone operators to help with admin, so that all public service centres (such as France Travail, the Caf, and the Police Nationale) would be able to answer 85% of phone calls immediately

5. Automated forms: The automation of certain online forms to make them easier to fill in, for example when claiming la prime d'activité, or to confirm your child’s inscription to a new school year

6. Help with errors: Increased help for people who have accidentally made errors filling in forms. Since 2018, this “right to error” has allowed for the rightful recovery of €6 billion, Mr Attal said

7. AI help: The creation of ‘Albert’, an artificial intelligence assistant that can help people with admin, created by nine digital experts from interministerial digital department Dinum

8. Extra staff: More people from Urssaf to help employers and micro-entrepreneurs with specific tasks

“In every area, there should be a space that groups together all the essential admin tasks for our citizens,” the prime minister said. “An efficient state is a state that achieves results, a state that responds to the problems and knows the issues that people in France face on a daily basis.

“Everything must be intelligible and accessible,” he said, adding that the new Albert AI service would “not replace public service agents” and that real people would still be accessible to help.

Mr Attal added that France Services centres have a “96% satisfaction rate” among people who visit them for help with their personal and professional administration tasks.