This presentation was made by Marine Camiade, France, at the 37th Annual Meeting of OECD Senior Budget Officials held in Stockholm on 9-10 June 2016

1. France budget framework

2. 2Fiscal rules
■ Like in Chile, France has a structural budget balance rule
– It is more recent (2012 European treaty). It aims at avoiding the accumulation of
deficits, particularly in upturn periods
– But similar difficulties in terms of methodology like in Chile and the new indicator
(structural deficit) is not used very much in the political debate
■ In Chile the medium term framework is an internal document,
whereas in France it is voted on every two years by the
Parliament
– The strength of this pluriannual law is to set up spending ceilings for every
subsector : central government, social security system and, since last year, for
local governments
– For social security system and local governments, ceilings are not compulsory.
The main challenge is to monitor their spending in a way compatible with their
autonomy. 07/06/2016

3. 3
The 2015 State general budget
A budget framework organized according to the main public policies
31 missions
The framework set up in 2001
€273 billion
(80 objectives
et 90 indicators)
384 objectives
756 indicators
programmes programmes programmes

4. 4
7 juin 2016
Example : mission Justice
A budget framework organized according to the main public policies
Judicial system
Before: 30 chapters
- Staff expenditure
- Pensions and allowances
- Social contributions
- Operating subsidies
- Social programmes
- Administrative facilities
- Investments
- …
Judicial system
Prisons
Legal protection for under 18s
Access to justice and legal aid
Support for judicial policy and
related organisations
After: 5 programmes

5. 5Ways of improvement
■ Unlike Chile, in France, performance is fully included in the budget
presentation but it is not used very much in the budget allocation
process
■ 3 Ways of improvement :
1- Streamlining the framework to make it clearer
• Reducing the number of programmes : by 10 % over the past 10 years
• Reducing the number of indicators : by half over the past 10 years
• Publishing a synthesis that focuses on the main results and a dashboard of 10 key
national indicators
2- Using indicators to select and to implement deeper spending
reviews
• annual
• concerns specific public policies proposed by the budget office and approved by the
Prime minister
• outcomes are made public and used in the budget process to identify savings
3- Strenghtening incentives for public managers
• Like in Chile, performance-oriented remuneration is not very developed
07/06/2016

6. 6
■ Performance budgeting
– How can we develop debates about outcomes (notably when the
budget review act is voted on)? And how can we increase the
accountability of public managers? What does Chile think about these
questions?
■ Role of the budget office
– Are the drafts sent by line ministries in June-July far from the maximum
amounts defined in June by the budget office ? Do line ministries meet
with the President to ask for more credits than those defined by the
budget office in June ?
– DIPRES has to assess the cost of new laws. Can it veto them ?
Questions
07/06/2016

7. 7ANNEXES
07/06/2016

8. 8Fiscal position : an ongoing consolidation
07/06/2016
-5.1%
-4.8%
-4.0% -4.0%
-3.5%
-3.3%
-2.7%
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Déficit public Déficit structurel
 A better-than-expected deficit
in 2015 (3,5 %)
 a commitment to reduce the
public deficit below 3% in 2017
to fulfill European
requirements
 The debt ratio remains high
(95,7 % in 2015)
 One of the highest public
expenditure ratio (55,3 % in
2015) and tax burden (44,5%)
in OECD countries

9. 9
7 juin 2016
A budget framework organized according to the main public policies
Mission
Programme Programme Programme
Action ActionAction
The new budget structure
384 objectives
756 indicators
80 objectives
et 90 indicators

10. 10Benchmark France with the EU average
Indicators for which France is doing better than EU
R&D expenses
2,3% GPD
1,9% GPD
Healthy life years
85,6/79 years
83,3/77,8 years
Income inequality
4,3
5
Poverty
12%
19,6%
Early school leaving
8,5%
11,1%
Carbon footprint
7,5t. GES/person/year
9t. GES/person/year
Indicators for which France is under the EU average
Employment rate
64,3%
64,9%
Public & private debt
96/81% GPD
87/81% GPD
Life satisfaction
7,0/10
7,1/10
Soil artificialization
5,8%
4,6%

11. 11Spending Reviews: procedure and results in France
 They have been set up by the public finances progamming bill (LPFP) 2014-2019 and
they aim at contributing to the respect of the LPFP trend
 A large perimeter including all the administrations (State, NHS, local level) and all the
budgetary instruments
 Fully included in the yearly process of the budget preparation
 A report about Spending reviews is annually presented by the Government to the
Parliament for the N budget : the results of the N-1 reviews are described and the
planned reviews for N+1 are listed
What When Who
On a specific policy, identifies
measures to meet an ex ante
savings target.
Focus on operational
recommandations
2015 : 1st campaign for the 2016 budget
(12 reviews, €500 M savings)
 2016 : 2nd campaign for the 2017
budget (12 reviews)
Yearly prior to the N
budgetary preparation
 Implement the N-1 reviews
 Propose reviews for the
N+1 budget
 The Budget Directorate
suggests issues and
coordinates the reviews
 Reviews are made by the
Inspection bodies

12. 12
Spending Reviews procedure and results in France
 First campaign in 2015
 Detail of the 6 most significant reviews (in billion euros)
Review Scope 2016
Financial
stakes
2017
Financial
stakes
Total
Personal housing assistance 17 0,225 0,325 0,55
The exemption mechanism
from social charges
15 0,095 0,11 0,205
Social expenses for medical
devices
9,8 0,07 0,08 0,15
The public engineering schools 2 - - -
The financial situation of the
universities
1,4 - - -
The property assets of the
social security offices
1 - - -