Introduction

As part of the State modernisation plan, the French government is currently conducting major structural and organisational reforms in the archival system. Firstly the Directorate of the Archives of France is due to be abolished by April 2009. Secondly the Parliament passed a new Archives Act which will affect access to public archives and records.

Directorate of the Archives of France

France has a centralised archival system in which the national and local archives are controlled by the Directorate of the Archives of France, which is currently one of ten divisions within the Ministry of Culture and Communication. Christine Albanel, current Minister for Culture and Communications intends to modernise the organisation of the Ministry by reducing the number of divisions from ten down to four. The archival directorate is to be merged into a Directorate of Heritage, which will be responsible for the archives, museums, national monuments and archaeology sectors. 

The intention of this structural reform is to simplify the organisation, and increase the efficiency of the Ministry in a cost effective manner. The new structure will reflect the main objectives of the Ministry and attempt to improve the delivery of cultural policies. However according to the Society of French Archivists it may also impact on the national archival policies and the preservation of archives in the long term.

Archives Act, 2008

In parallel to this structural reform, the organisation and access to records and archives have also been changed. In July 2008, the French Parliament passed a new Archives Act. Prior to this access to archives in France was defined by the Archives Act, 1979 (and subsequent amendments). Generally records could be accessed when they reached 30 years of age (except for personal data, government decisions, etc… which were closed for a longer period of time). However since July 2008 archives and records can be accessed from the date of their creation.  This is comparable to the Freedom of Information Act 1997 and 2003 in Ireland. 

The Archives Act, 2008 also defines exceptions to records access in order to protect the privacy of individuals and the State international policy. For example medical records can be accessed 125 years after the date of birth of the individual (instead of 150 years). 

The Government considers that the Archives Act, 2008 is a good compromise between transparency, greater accessibility to records and the protection of privacy and personal data. Historians and archivists have welcomed the reductions of the closure periods.

Magali Briquet