When an administration does not answer you, it is as if you said “yes”. In principle, in any case. Because, in fact, this rule passed three years ago undergoes a number of exceptions. The good news is that their number should decrease, reveals to us the secretary of State for the Simplification. Interview.

You have sent a request to administration in the beginning of the summer, but have not received a response ? In theory, this is good news ! “The silence kept for two months by the administrative authority on an application is a decision of acceptance”, says in effect the act since the end of 2013. That does not say word agrees… Before, it was the opposite : the principle of “silence is a rejection” was enshrined in the law.

According to a BVA survey that The Express Your Money today unveils in exclusivity, 84 % of French people approve of this development. Of the individuals who will be therefore a priori delighted to learn that if the “silence is agreement” suffers from many exceptions, their list should be shortened soon. This is what reveals to us the secretary of State for State Reform and Simplification, Jean-Vincent Placed.

The Express Yourmoney : We approach the third anniversary of the vote on the principle of “silence is agreement”. What conclusions can you draw from its application ?

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Jean-Vincent Placed . Its entry into force has taken place in a phased manner but all the same extremely fast. The law of November 2013, it applies from November 2014 to requests addressed to State administrations and from November 2015 to those sent to local authorities and social security bodies.

I hear the interventions of those skeptics – these are the same critics who have done nothing for thirty years on the subject. From my side, I am objective, I have the figures under my eyes and I can tell you that it is a beautiful reality.

As regards the scope of the State-3600 administrative procedures identified, 1800 were eligible in the eyes of the law, and 1200 have already switched to the “silence is agreement”. In three years, it is as well past fifty of procedures involved to 1200 ! In the field of local communities, sports federations, agencies of social security, 725 procedures have been recorded, of which 350 are eligible ; 210 have already been put in place.

Given the number of exceptions, the administrative procedures for which the “silence is agreement” still less numerous than those where “the silence is a rejection” …

For everything that is basic, for the everyday things of individuals, businesses, associations, the “silence is agreement” is generally applied. This is the case for approaches to very specific, as the enrollment in kindergarten or a request for a bar to be temporary.

Regarding exceptions, it is necessary to distinguish the impossibilities of the derogations. The law was immediately ruled out of the scope of “silence is agreement” the procedures to which it is impossible to apply because this would not be compatible with european law or with the requirements of security. No one would apply this principle to the authorisation for placing on the market of medicines or transport of nuclear waste…

On the whole of the administrative procedures identified, half are not eligible. Therefore, it should not compare the 1200 procedures to which the principle applies to the 3600 procedures identified, but rather to 1800 procedures eligible.

And our goal is to amplify the device. In the field of the State, on the 600 procedures covered by the derogations, a hundred could be quickly integrated into the device.

We will announce that with the president of the Republic and the Prime minister by the end of the year. I can’t give details for now because we still work daily to convince the different departments to accept that new administrative procedures concerning them pass in silence for agreement”, it is a work of long breath.

All this requires a lot of voluntarism, the administrations do not have all the culture of change. However, I can already tell you that we will have positive responses to the ministries of Finance and Defence, for example.

The law was also excluded from the “silence is agreement” the measures are purely financial, “except in matters of social security, in the cases provided for by decree”. Can we therefore expect an extension of the principle to new applications related to social security, such as the Allowance for disabled adults, to housing subsidies, etc ?

The treatment of the files of request for allowance and / or assistance are often long to study because they involve a lot of checks, because of their budgetary impact. It is for this reason that they are for the most part by principle not relevant for the moment.

But these subjects are part of those on which reflection could be involved. Social minima allowances and that you mention will generally be a simplification of magnitude in the next act of financing of social security.

Only 12% of French people know what steps are involved in the “silence is agreement”. Wasn’t it ultimately easier and less risky to consider from the outset that our application was rejected in case of non-response ?

You are too French (laugh) ! Do you think that a “no” is better than a “yes” implied… The “yes” implied, it is very anglo-saxon principle. I understand that for the citizens faced with this, it is not always obvious. We have also put online a site that lists the steps for which the “silence is agreement”. We will work to further improve, with a better ergonomics. It is true that the problem from the beginning, it is the overall communication. The State needs to boost its communication on its reforms.

You were not in government when the “silence is agreement” has been entered. On this point, would you have done in the same way, this law ?

Yes. The real issue in my eyes, this is the principle cultural. That’s the important thing. For too long, it was considered that the user had to wait for the good will of the administration. We completely changed philosophy. Considering so far the relationship with the administration in a negative way rather than positive : we have moved from suspicion to trust. What change deeply the relationship between the administration and the user.

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also, if the device is criticized in the media, the survey shows a strong approval of our fellow citizens : 84 % of people agree with an extent in France, it is all the same rare, no (laughing) ?