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"Local Government" statistical office

The "ministerial statistical office for Local Government" is the Department of Studies and Local Statistics (Département des Études et des Statistiques Locales: DESL) at the Ministry of the Interior, Overseas France and Local Authorities.

In France, there are three levels of local government endowed with full executive authority—the municipality (commune), the département, and the region—plus inter-municipal cooperation bodies. DESL monitors the resources and activities of all these institutions.

Contents

Main missions

DESL is in charge of statistical production, analysis, and studies in the areas of local finance, local taxation, local territorial units, and local civil service.

Statistical production

Statistical production concerns municipalities, local public institutions, départements and regions, and in particular the enumeration of local government entities. The data processed and published cover local finance, local taxation, local-government debt, and central-government financial support to local-government units and their employees.

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Studies

DESL conducts studies at the request of local players, central-government departments, and other users—generally firms providing services to local government.

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Dissemination

DESL disseminates financial and statistical data on local-government units and data of use to local decision-makers. It publishes and disseminates annual statistical and financial guides as well as a quarterly bulletin of statistical information (BIS). DESL prepares the annual report by the Local-Finance Observatory (Observatoire des Finances Locales).

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Status in institution

DESL forms part of the Directorate-General for Local-Government Units (Direction Générale des Collectivités Locales: DGCL), which reports directly to the Ministry of the Interior, Overseas France and Local Authorities.

DGCL defines the operating and organizational rules of local-government entities and their groupings, i.e., their institutional functioning, the status of local civil servants, regulations governing local elected officials' terms of office, and fiscal and tax arrangements.

It prepares and processes draft legislation concerning local government. It ensures that responsibility is properly distributed between the French State and local-government bodies. DGCL is the interlocutor for local-government bodies on matters concerning implementation of European Union law. It distributes the main financial appropriations by the French State to local-government bodies.

DGCL acts as secretariat for many organizations including the Committee on Local-Government Finances (Comité des Finances Locales: CFL), the National Council on Training of Local Elected Officials (Conseil National de la Formation des Élus Locaux: CNFEL), and the Ethics Commission (Commission de Déontologie). It also prepares and disseminates reports requested by lawmakers.

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