ADMINISTRATION · 13 MEASURES ·
Administrative structures and civil service: audit of 13 measures
The historical €45–67bn range is no longer used as an automatic fiscal subtotal. Each measure is now separated by financial nature.
What changes
Key point: Measures 2.04 (€8–12bn) and 2.07 (€10–15bn) are classified as productivity gains in the Plan: €18–27bn of productivity potential, separate from expenditure savings.
All thirteen measures, separated by financial nature
| Measure | Nature / Plan effect | Current reference | Public consolidation | Simulator treatment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.01 Completely abolish the regional administrative tier | Restructuring Detailed costing in measure file | Regions are expressly territorial authorities under Article 72 of the Constitution. | Count only expenditure genuinely removed, net of functions, staff, contracts and assets transferred elsewhere. | Phase in after decomposition; savings from councillors, CESER or regional services cannot be counted twice. |
| 2.02 Abolish inter-municipal structures and restore municipal sovereignty | Restructuring Detailed costing in measure file | On 1 January 2026, DGCL counted 1,252 EPCI with own taxation: 21 metropolitan authorities, 14 urban communities, 230 agglomeration communities and 987 communities of communes. | Legal abolition of an EPCI does not abolish its functions. Separate governance/support genuinely avoided from transferred staff and services. | Model by EPCI type and function, including transfer costs. |
| 2.03 Transition without forced redundancies, supported mobility for 128,000 staff | Investment Investment | The 128,000 staff figure is a transition pool defined by the Plan, not a standalone 2026 statistic. | Cost support, training, mobility and pay differentials; no saving is attributed to this measure itself. | Transition cost only; savings belong to posts later genuinely removed or left unfilled. |
| 2.04 Five-year interministerial legislative clean-up mission | Productivity €8–12bn per year | In the Plan this line is classified as a productivity gain, not a direct budget saving. | Document administrative time saved, compliance costs and delays. Do not automatically convert €8–12bn into expenditure cuts. | Separate productivity module until appropriations or jobs actually fall. |
| 2.05 Constitutionalise a one-in, two-out rule for regulations | Structural Structural effect | A one-in, two-out rule acts on regulatory flow; by itself it creates no immediate saving. | Publish rules created/removed and measured burden; convert to euros only where separately observed. | Outside direct savings total. |
| 2.06 Reduce the number of legal codes from 69 to no more than 20 | Structural Reduce from 69 to at most 20 codes | Légifrance maintains a live list of codes. The figure 69 is the Plan's historical reference and must be re-frozen at a precise date before use as a current baseline. | Measure simplification, duplication removed and recodification cost; fewer codes do not automatically mean lower spending. | Structural effect, with legal transition cost separated. |
| 2.07 Fully digitise the administration over five years | Productivity €10–15bn per year | This line is classified as productivity gain in the Plan. Digitalisation also requires systems, cybersecurity, maintenance, support and training. | Separate the €10–15bn potential from observed fiscal savings; any workforce reduction passes through 2.09. | Productivity plus digital costs; no automatic addition to payroll savings. |
| 2.08 Create a single departmental access point for all procedures | Structural Structural effect | France services already centralises procedures and handles about 1.2 million assisted interactions per month. | The one-stop shop should extend/integrate an existing base; assess coverage, connected services, staff, premises and genuinely duplicated counters. | Savings only for counters genuinely removed while accessibility is maintained. |
| 2.09 Do not replace 30 to 50 percent of natural departures | Payroll Budget saving — not quantified in source table | In 2024, 136,700 new direct pensions were awarded to people who had worked in public service. A mechanical 30–50% screen equals 41,010–68,350 posts; retirements and all natural departures are not identical. | Calculate post by post: observed departure, replacement need, priority service, employer cost and vacancy date. At end-2024 public service had 5.8767 million staff (+0.6% year on year). | Only a genuinely unfilled vacancy produces a saving; mobility, severance or automation cannot add a second saving on the same post. |
| 2.10 Supported internal mobility towards priority services | Structural Structural effect | Supported mobility moves a resource to a priority service; by itself it does not reduce payroll. | Track origin, destination, avoided vacancy and priority need; the effect may be an avoided future hire. | No direct saving; any avoided hire is counted once in the workforce scenario. |
| 2.11 Raise mutually agreed severance to one month of salary per year | Investment Investment | The decree of 6 August 2026 made mutually agreed severance permanent. Current minimums range from one sixth to one third of a month's gross pay per year depending on seniority; one month per year is therefore much more generous. | Model the upfront cost by seniority and pay, then compare with employer cost avoided only if the post genuinely disappears. | Upfront investment; any later saving passes through 2.09, never twice. |
| 2.12 Progressive reduction of activity for staff aged 58 to 62 | Investment Investment | Progressive retirement for public employees is already available from age 60 subject to conditions. The age-58-to-62 proposal must isolate what is new for ages 58–59 from what overlaps existing rules from age 60. | Cost work percentage, pension fraction, contributions, any replacement and knowledge transfer. | Separate transition cost; payroll reduction only net of replacement and deduplicated against 2.09. |
| 2.13 Degree-awarding AI training for 400,000 public employees | Investment Investment | DGAFP has already launched AI training and opened cross-branch framework negotiations in June 2026. The 400,000-person target is therefore a scale-up to be costed. | Cost training, staff time, certification, tools and support; gains appear only after measuring automated tasks and resources actually redeployed/not replaced. | Upfront investment, no automatic fiscal saving; productivity effects connect to 2.07 and category 09. |
Methodological locks
Non-replacement. 30–50% of 136,700 new retirees in 2024 mechanically gives 41,010–68,350 posts, but this is only a capacity screen.
Inter-municipal bodies. Abolishing a legal entity does not abolish its functions: transferred staff and services must be deducted from gross gains.
Mutually agreed severance. One month of salary per year is modelled as transition investment, not as a saving.
AI and digital. Time freed becomes a fiscal saving only if spending, recruitment or a post genuinely disappears.
Structured data
JSON · CSV · Deduplication matrix.
Primary sources
Insee · DGAFP · DGCL · ANCT — France services · Légifrance — rupture conventionnelle · Service-Public — retraite progressive · DGAFP — IA