“In five years, France has progressed from an “empty chair” policy to that of an observer and to then become a member of OGP and its vice-president”, declared Axelle Lemaire, France’s Secretary of State in charge of Digital Affairs, at the Paris Open Source Summit, speaking about the country’s Open Government policy.
Ms Lemaire stated that in France, Open Government is “a mini-revolution”. “But we have to give ourselves the means to make sure, in several years, that these legal obligations have very concrete results”, she said, referring to the new law for a Digital Republic which considers as an obligation the opening of public data by administrations.
The Secretary of State considers the co-design process, used to draft this law, as “an experiment”. “I hope it does not remain an experimental process. If it remains [experimental], it would become an exception. It is imperative that this method of co-building a law be generalised”, she commented.
Helping local administrations
According to her, the objectives of open government and open data are cultural: “changing the approach within administrations and encouraging them to have open and shared processes with communities, the civil society and the citizens”. But “this cannot happen overnight. This law imposes a legal obligation. It is now a matter for local and regional authorities, as it is at the local level that changes will take place as quickly as possible.”
France has co-chaired the Open Government Partnership since October and will organise the OGP Summit in December in Paris. France has also published its first National Action Plan which contains advanced options, including opening the source code for some calculators used by administrations. “And I have the feeling that not everyone knows where we're coming from”, Ms Lemaire concluded.