PRESS RELEASE

13 September 2024

Public thematic report

UNIVERSAL NATIONAL SERVICE

A measure available to young people from the age of 15, the Universal National Service

(SNU), was tested in 13 departments in 2019, before being rolled out nationwide. Its gradual

extension, originally intended to result in an extension to an entire age group by 2024, was

severely disrupted by the health crisis. Every year since then, the number of participants in

cohesion stays has fallen far short of the target set in the initial budget act. These difficulties

reveal the absence of a clear timeframe for the measure, as well as insufficient planning of

the resources needed to ramp it up. This report looks at how the measure has been

implemented since 2019. At the end of its investigation, the Court notes that the conditions

for implementing the measure are unsatisfactory and that its development has not been

accompanied by a clarification of its objectives, which remain uncertain.

A measure with objectives that remain uncertain

Implemented nationwide from 2019, the SNU is divided into three successive phases: a 12-day

‘cohesion stay’, a public-interest mission, and finally an involvement in a public association or

institution. The SNU remains based on voluntary service; only the public-interest mission is

compulsory, in principle, for young volunteers who have completed a cohesion stay, who,

under the French National Service Code, commit to ‘’participate in a public interest mission‘’.

The objectives assigned to the SNU revolve around the concepts of national resilience, national

cohesion, engagement, guidance and integration of young people. To date, they remain

uncertain and poorly understood, particularly among young people. While the participants are

satisfied with their experience, in terms of social diversity and commitment, the measure's

ambitions have not been achieved.

Unsatisfactory institutional and budgetary management

Since 2019, there have been many changes in the management of the measure by the

government and the central administrations involved, and the inter-ministerial nature of the

measure has not been consolidated. The strategy for mobilising local players, local authorities

and associations has yet to be defined. The budget is covered by programme 163 (‘Youth and

associative sector’) which comes under the Ministry of National Education and Youth (MENJ),

rising from €30 million in 2020 to €160 million in 2024 in the initial budget act (LFI). However,

the budget actually used each year has been significantly lower than set out in the

initial budget

act

. The cost of the SNU corresponds mainly to the cohesion stays, in particular the

accommodation, catering and supervision of the young people. However,

the calculation of the

cost per young person prepared by the MENJ has significant shortcomings. In addition, the

estimate, close to €2,300 per young person for 2021 and 2022, does not take into account a

number of costs. These include the administrative costs of the MENJ, but also the costs

supported by other ministries, in particular the Ministry of the Armed Forces, mainly for the