Letter from the President of the Republic to the Prime Minister
NOR : PREX0817437X
dated 11 July 2008 concerning the national orders
Mr. Prime Minister,
The Legion of Honour and the National Order of Merit are awards for services rendered to the country in all the domains of activity.
To be legitimately recognised, they must reflect French society as closely as possible and admit those who contribute to its radiance in the most outstanding manner. The universal character of the orders, set from the origin of the Legion of Honour, was revived in 1962 with the publication of the code of the Legion of Honour, and in 1963, with the institution of the National Order of Merit.
Since this date, genuine efforts have been made in favour of the universality of these two orders. Each ministry, endowed with its specialised contingent, thus finds itself represented in all of the promotions. In other respects, guidelines have been given over the years to ministerial departments in order to enlarge and enrich their choices by further soliciting their central services, along with prefects, territorial communities, public establishments, and the economic and associative worlds. These efforts made it possible for the ministries’ promotions to progressively diversify.
For all that, it seems to me that this evolution remains highly insufficient and much too slow.
I ascertain that today women, who continue to take on more and more consequential responsibilities, represent only 16% of the members of the Legion of Honour and 23% of the members of the National Order of Merit, even if, since 14 November 2007, all of the promotions in these two orders were made to strictly respect the principle of parity. I also note the far too small number of persons from modest backgrounds, from minority groups, volunteers in the world of associations, lastly, actors in the private sector – heads of companies, engineers, researchers, technicians, the professions. . . – sectors that nonetheless make up the essence of our economic fabric.
It is therefore urgent, in my eyes, to diversify more distinctly the different promotions of our two most eminent national orders and to see that they assure the Nation’s recognition to those who serve it in the depths of society and of the country. To do this, there are two imperative major efforts:
- to reward citizens who serve our country with the most determination, efficiency, self-sacrifice, and sense for the common interest;
- to ensure equal opportunities between men and women to accede to these awards.
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To this end, I have already seen to it that from now on there be strict parity in each promotion of the Legion of Honour and of the National Order of Merit with the exception, of course, of the ministries where the terrain is essentially male (i.e., Defence; veterans).
In addition I have passed two new measures:
- giving the highest attention to persons of modest origin who began working at early ages and who, with the sweat of courage and willpower, acceded to high responsibilities, I decided to increase the promotion of Labour: the allotted number of crosses will thus be doubled in 2009 and tripled in 2010;
- conscious of the essential role of voluntary workers, I have decided to create, in the manner of the promotion of Labour, a promotion of Voluntary workers in associations. Prepared and presented by you, it will be inter-ministerial with the vocation of recognising and rewarding the merits of volunteers, especially in the fields of education, health, social and humanitarian work.
I ask you to confirm these orientations to all members of the Government and to see that they are put into action. You will particularly see to it that the prefects involve the city halls, specialised departmental heads (sanitary and social work, agriculture, public works. . .), chambers of commerce, organisms that represent businesses, associations (humanitarian, unions. . .), etc, in order to continually feed and enrich – once the necessary controls of honour are made – the choices of the ministers whilst they constitute their promotions. It is essential to open our orders closer to the reality of French society.
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Beyond these classic ways of scouting, to fully ensure the success of the objective of diversity and to ensure the trust of our co-citizens in our national orders that are truly representative and in the pertinence of the allotted decorations, I decided to put a new procedure into place: the citizen’s initiative. This procedure will allow every citizen to propose a person he regards as meritorious for a first nomination in the Legion of Honour or in the National Order of Merit.
If this proposal is supported by 50 people in the same department it will be compulsorily examined by the prefect of the department. This latter will make the usual checks and if the proposal is judged to be justified, will transmit it to the respected ministry and to the Grand Chancellor. Every minister, at the time of establishing promotions, will thus have a larger, more diversified group for more open choices. The Grand Chancellor will be able to ascertain that files which have been thus proposed were not systematically or unjustly put aside, and proceed to the necessary checks.
At stake with the citizen’s initiative is to permit each person to see, in all equity, the recognition of his merits and for our fellow citizens to contribute to the Nation’s recognition of those who serve it.
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In conjunction with the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour, please give the necessary instructions to the members of the Government and to the prefects in order to implement the ensemble of these orientations. These instructions will include the precise description of the methods for citizen’s initiative.
I will ask the Grand Chancellor to establish an annual, complete evaluation of the promotions of the national orders for each ministry, and to personally see that these directives be followed up effectively.
