French Interior Minister Manuel Valls has introduced new measures to make French citizenship more accessible after the government of former President Nicolas Sarkozy tightened naturalisation laws, reports FRANCE 24.
At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, he presented a decree reorganising the administration in charge of granting French citizenship.
“Regional platforms” will start processing the applications in eastern France next week on behalf of local offices in an attempt to curb what the government described as the “strong heterogeneity in the practices observed at the 186 processing sites nationwide and in the way applications were processed (duration, clearance rate).”
Some offices were found to reject 10% more applicants than the national average.
In the Lorraine region, naturalisation decisions will now be made by a committee including the local prefect and “two qualified persons chosen by him for their ability to evaluate a person’s path towards integration”.
Prefects, the highest government representatives in France’s administrative districts, have so far made the decision alone.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.