With the disappearance of the National School of Administration, diplomats now have a vocation to join an interdepartmental pool of civil servants.
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The arbitration was rendered against the initial opinion of the Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and raised a sharp excitement within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE). The two bodies constituting the hierarchy of the Quai d’Orsay will be removed as part of the reform of the high public service, initiated by President Emmanuel Macron. Since his announcement to the staff representatives, Friday, October 22, this decision generates a strong concern about the future modalities of recruitment and operation of the department.
The measurement concerns two bodies at the heart of the workings of French diplomacy: that of foreign affairs advisers and that of plenipotentiary ministers, which will be “put in extinction” from 2023. In total, some 800 highs Officials are concerned, out of 1,800 category A diplomats. These staff are either from the National School of Administration (ENA) or, most often, recruited through the very selective East Competition. An institution inherited from the Napoleonic era, whose existence could now be called into question, to believe the most pessimistic. “It’s a real shock, because people who have passed this contest have done so to become diplomats, by appeal for the international, and not to become officials,” reacts under the guise of anonymity an old ambassador.
This evolution is part of a larger construction site led by the Minister of Public Service, Amelie de Montchalin, under the leadership of the Elysee. Reflections were committed two years within the department to ensure more parity and diversity in the profile of senior diplomats and ambassadors, as well as better mobility, while some people remain without specific assignment.
“A failure”
However, the removal of ENA, replaced early 2022 by the National Institute of Public Service, and the creation of a new “corps of state directors”, where will be grouped together today The school of Strasbourg, conditioned the trade-offs on the diplomats: they now have a vocation to join this new interdepartmental pool of civil servants, like the prefects, sub-prefects and general inspectors of the finances.
Beyond a simple corporatist reflex, this evolution particularly worries staff representatives. “By diluting the top of the Pyramid of the Orsay dock in a vast ensemble, renowned interchangeable, state directors, the reform of the higher supervision signs the programmed disappearance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, even denounces the CFDT. -Mea, majority within diplomatic staff. Friday, October 22, several unions have boycotted the information meeting, convened at the last minute by the very new Director of Human Resources of the Ministry, Agnès Romatet-Spain.
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