Simplification is about burden, not document counts
The Council of State has repeatedly warned that unstable and layered rules create real costs for citizens, businesses and administrations. A five-year clean-up programme should therefore inventory forms, reporting duties, controls and evidence requirements as well as statutes and decrees.
The current Légifrance filter lists 76 codes in force, showing that the Plan’s historic baseline of 69 is outdated. A public methodology must define what is counted and measure the time and cost removed by each reform.
A financial target needs reconstruction
The Plan’s €8–12 billion annual target should remain labelled as a target until sector-by-sector burden reductions are measured. Repealing a provision that leaves the same form, IT workflow or control in place creates no practical saving.
An annual dashboard should report rules created, simplified and repealed, stability, processing time, compliance hours and IT retirements. Codification and substantive policy change should be tracked separately so that political choices are not hidden inside renumbering exercises.
Costing and legal delivery
Interministerial mission under the Prime Minister/SGG, with annual packages of statutes, ordinances and regulatory clean-up.
The Plan’s historic €8–12bn annual target remains an objective until avoided compliance and administrative costs are measured rigorously.
Transition expenditure is reported separately from recurring savings, and transferred activity remains public expenditure unless the policy itself is discontinued.
What must be proved before implementation
A repealed rule can be replaced by guidance, forms or reporting duties; the metric must capture burden, not just document counts.
The implementation file should operate as a public rule inventory. Every proposed repeal or consolidation needs a legal owner, reason, affected rights, consultation path, concordance table and post-reform measure of administrative burden so Parliament can audit the five-year sequence.
Notes and sources
- Conseil d’État — Simplification et qualité du droit — primary/institutional source used for the measure framework.
- DGAFP — Code général de la fonction publique et codification — primary/institutional source used for the measure framework.
- Légifrance — liste des codes en vigueur — primary/institutional source used for the measure framework.
- Conseil d’État — Mesurer l’inflation normative — primary/institutional source used for the measure framework.
