Mediator of the Republic (France) - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Presentation

The mediator of the Republic is a independent Administrative authority special, qualified by the law of independent authority, Loi of January 3rd, 1973.

Inspired of the Ombudsman Swedish and of the parliamentary Police chief English, its role is to denounce them through administration. It is named by the the Council of Ministers for 6 years nonrenewable.

This nonrenewable character is a condition of its independence, which is also characterized by its subtraction with the hierarchical capacity: it does not receive an order and can be raised of its functions only in the event of duly noted prevention.

It cannot be seized directly by private individuals but only via a Parlementaire (appointed or senator of the choice of managed). In the facts, it can be seized directly. In this case, it transmits the complaint to a member of Parliament so that this one is communicated to him in the forms.

If it can be seized directly in the event of urgency and of particular importance, sasine is regularized a posteriori .

Its competence is very wide and includes/understands the activity of the administrations of State, the local government agencies, the public corporations, and the organisms in charge of a public service mission.

Since the text of 1973,5 laws competences of the Mediator extended:

the law of December 24th 1976: reinforce the bonds with the Parliament, specifies the relationships to the jurisdictions, widens the bases of the action in equity, authorizes the legislative reform proposal.
the law of January 13rd 1989: reinforcement of the independence of the Mediator.
the law of orientation of February 6th 1992: the moral persons can seize the Mediator.
the law of April 12th 2000: the Mediator can autosaisir himself as regards reform; devote the existence of deputy and defines their role, introduction of the presentation of an annual report at the Parliament.
the ordinance of March 25th 2004: lay out that the delegates exert their functions on a purely voluntary basis.

Mediators of the Republic since 1973:

1973 - 1974 Antoine Pinay, " the pionnier"
1974 - 1980 Aime Paquet, " the fondateur"
1980 - 1986 Robert Fabre, " the man of the consensus"
1986 - 1992 Paul Legatte, " the man of the équité"
1992 - 1998 Jacques Furrier, " the pragmatique"
1998 - 2004 Bernard Stasi, " the décentralisateur"
2004 - 2010 Jean-Paul Delevoye, " towards an authority morale"

Delegates of the Mediator of the Republic

Its delegates (currently approximately 300) are named for one one year duration renewable. They carry out permanences in the Prefectures, even the town halls, the houses of Justice and the Right, houses of the public services or the social centres. They must devote at least two half-day per week to the mission which is entrusted to them because of their professional competences (legal, administrative, drafting, relational quality, knowledge of the various forms of mediation…)

Contrary to the Mediator of the Republic, the delegate is a direct interlocutor. In the event of failure of its intervention, it directs the citizen towards a member of Parliament who will have to carry the complaint to the knowledge of the Mediator of the Republic.

Regrouping of the mediators of the public services

The Mediator of the Republic joined, in 2002, with other Mediators of public services which lay out, according to the texts, of a position of independence with respect to the institution:

Deposit and consignment office - without indication of the service mediation
EDF * State education * French federation of the Insurance companies * France 2
France 3
Gaz de France * LA POSTE * Ministry for the Economy, Finances and Industry * The RATP * Postal universal service * The SNCF * Town of Paris

Capacities

Its force comes owing to the fact that it is released from any procedure to denounce the illegality or the inefficiency of the administration. It does not have to be able of sanction; it can only recommend one solution appropriate to the precise case. It has capacities of instructions. It can also, although it never did it, seize the parquet floor. Finally with this collected information, it can propose global reforms.

It does not have the capacity to encroach on the courts (impossibility of intervening in a procedure initiated in front of a court or of calling into question the cogency of a decision returned by a court).

However, if he does not arrive to a solution accepted with the Administration, he has particular capacities:

a disciplinary power of substitution: it can engage a disciplinary proceedings against an obviously faulty agent if the competent authority refuses to sanction it.

a capacity of injunction: it can, “in the event of inexecution of a legal decision”, to oblige the Administration to conform to it within a time which it fixes. If this injunction is not followed of effect, the inexecution of the legal decision can be the subject of a special report/ratio, published in the Official journal.

a capacity of investigation: The ministers and all the public authorities must facilitate the task of the Mediator of the Republic and their contest can prove to be invaluable in complex and significant fields: it can, for example, to ask the Court of Auditors to open investigations and to provide an technical expertise.

a capacity of reform: The Mediator with the possibility of asking the modification of the law or the payment by a reform proposal, beyond the individual cases which are subjected to him, in order to improve operation of the administration or to prevent the unjust situations from reproducing.

All these capacities are the guarantors of the independence and the effectiveness of the action of the Mediator of the Republic.

Mode of its acts

A doctrinal debate on the real nature of the mediator and the mode of his acts opposed Braibant and Yves Gaudemet, but the Council of State sliced. For the first, the Mediator is inevitably ratachable with the executive since it is neither a legislative body nor a legal body and is thus an independent administrative authority. For Gaudemet, the mediator cannot enter the tripartic classification of the separation of the capacities not only because of his foreign origin but especially because it was created to control the administratition autremement and that consequently to recognize the statute of administrative authority to him would subject it to the heavy and procedural administrative law which would make it ineffective.

The Council of State sliced with the stop Retail : the mediator is well a independent Administrative authority. Its acts of mediator are not likely of recourse in front of an administrative court contrary to its acts of organization like the nomination of the departmental mediators.

Evolution of the function

In October 2007, the Comité Balladur returned his report/ratio required by president Nicolas Sarkozy relating to the reform of the institutions. Concerning the mediator of the republic, it is proposed that its operating process and its responsibilities resemble more that of the Défenseur of the people. It could be that it takes the name of " defender of the droits" , on the Spanish model. In the case of adoption, its competences widened compared to those available to the current mediator of the Republic. Its nomination would be subjected to the vote of the Parliament. It could be also that its function either redefines taking into consideration possibility that the texts as a recourse open to any person offered having difficulties of being made understand by the French administration - and consequently open for the without-papers in process of expulsion.

References

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