Hungarian-French Conference Entitled “Modernisation Of Public Administration: Public Service Training Challenges in France and Hungary” was hosted by the Budapest French Institute on 21 March 2012.

The National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) together with its partner institute, the French National School of Administration - Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA), the Budapest French Institute (BFI) and the French Embassy in Budapest organised a joint conference with a programme to focus on giving a better understanding of the current public administration reforms in both countries.
The event enjoyed a high level of professional interest and provided French and Hungarian experts and representatives of public administration with in-depth information of the lifelong career system for public servants. The professional ethics subject received great emphasis, along with the sharing of other French and Hungarian practices and the promotion of interactive professional dialogues.

In his opening speech François Laquieze, Director of BFI highlighted the similar challenges French and Hungarian public administrations face. European public administrations are equally affected by today’s economic crisis and the only realistic answer for this problem is the coordination of European public administrations – emphasized Mr Laquieze. In his welcome speech Max Brunner, Deputy Director of International Relations at ENA pointed out: whereas the reform of public administration and public service training in Hungary is currently in process, the French public administration has recently undergone a significant reform, to which ENA intends to align its trainings. Therefore, the development of tighter relations is important for both French and Hungarian parties.

Both ENA and NIPA plays a crucial role in the modernisation of national public administrations.  In their introductory speeches representatives of both institutes stressed the continuous demand for knowledge among public servants parallel to the development of information-technology. Hence, the main task of public service trainings is to ensure opportunity for the constant renewal of PA knowledge and to improve public servants’ ability of adapting to persistent change. Gergely Koltányi, Acting Director-General of NIPA added: the increasing number of tasks performed by public administration, the ever-rising demands by society towards public service and the decreasing number of staff generate stricter timetables and more modern forms of learning, thus the majority of trainings are provided through distance education. Since its foundation in 1945, ENA has undergone similar changes, with the latest in 2009 – reminded Max Brunner. The School strongly emphasizes practical training and due to its recruitment system – which allows fresh graduates, public servants with several years of experience in public administration and experts with significant experience in the private sector to study at ENA after successful completion of its open competition – the classes are diverse and provide a great opportunity for exchange of practices. Common features of these trainings are provision of stabile and overall knowledge, acquirement of oral and written reasoning, overriding of theoretical training and learning through practice. Dr. Gábor Széplaki-Nagy, Deputy Spokesperson of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office, moderator of the conference and a former student of ENA added: the traineeship period was a defining experience, providing him not only with actual practices but with great responsibility as well.

One of the main topics of the conference was the lifelong career system for public servants, which is a central issue for public administration both in France and Hungary. Whereas in Hungary this is revealed in the Magyary Programme, in France the importance of the issue lies in its national aspect: François Chambon, director of the Regional Institute of Public Administration of Metz reminded, in France the state created the nation and not vice versa. Due to this historical fact and the large number of public servants (around 5,3 million people, namely 20% of the French population) the issues of the public administration in France  are of utmost importance. François Chambon gave full details of the French public administration career system. Public servants’ preferment is mainly determined by their professional experience, yet in certain cases the promotion may be executed on a merit-basis, by the evaluation of superiors or by the individual decision of the institution, which increases employees’ motivation. Dr. István Temesi, Associate Professor, Faculty of Public Administration, National University of Public Services, added that the Zoltán Magyary Programme for the Development of Public Administration also guides the career system to a similar direction. The primary goal of the Magyary Programme is to establish the “good state” together with the judicial and local self-governmental reform launched in 2011. The organic part of the programme is to establish the new career system, in which the principle of career plays an important role together with the values of efficiency and performance. In the new career system the principle of quality must appear in the phase of selection and training. The National University of Public Services plays an important role in this matter, being the main institution for public administration training. The system would preserve the advantages of career systems and insures the possibility of flexible adaptation, namely the horizontal mobility, the possibility to switch within the career system. Furthermore the creation of real career possibilities also means the establishment of a fair and more efficient remuneration system, which – like the French example above - is not exclusively built on professional experience.

The lifelong career system for public servants is closely related to the regulation of professional ethics. Dr. Zoltán Hazafi, Head of Department of Public Service in the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice presented a detailed examination of professional ethics principles related to the law on public servants, which entered into force on 1 March 2012. In contrast to the Hungarian uniform regulation, François Chambon highlighted that professional ethics are managed by the French public administration in line with each profession and therefore have no single legal source. Nevertheless, one may note the tendency towards a uniform regulation and some ministries have already established their own code of ethics. The gradual shift from prohibition to prevention is another result of the ongoing professional ethics changes in the French public administration. In accordance with this risk management plays an important role among public service trainings, including the preparation of public officials for the application of rules through practical situations.

Closing the event, speakers and participants considered the forum successful, instructive and last but not least worthy to continue. The conference organisers are looking forward to host colleagues and experts interested in the modernisation of public administration in the coming years as well, in the hope that personal and professional experience of the participants will be enriched through similar professional meetings.

(NKI)