JUntil 2017, citizens could go to any municipality to request an identity card. Since this date, as with biometric passports, only voluntary municipalities equipped with Collection Devices (DR) can process these procedures. This resulted, in Gironde, as elsewhere, in “a significant backlog of requests and significant waiting times” culminating in 2022-2023 with a “crisis of identity documents”.
This is what the Regional Chamber of Accounts (CRC) of Nouvelle-Aquitaine points out in a report evaluating public policies devoted to “the policy of reception by the municipalities of Gironde of applicants for national identity cards and passports”, published on December 6.
The magistrates' analysis results in an overall positive assessment: in 2022-2023, the average time for making an appointment was one and a half months. “These municipal deadlines have nevertheless been significantly reduced from the end of 2023 and are, by mid-2024, around ten days. » And this while the number of requests has increased: 184,464 in 2017; 385,183 in 2023.
The chamber considers that this improvement is linked to the increase in the number of municipalities equipped with DR, which limits the number of counters open to Girondins. In 2017, only 36 of the 535 municipalities in the department were equipped. In June 2024, there were 85 (16% of town halls).
The limits of dematerialization
The jurisdiction's satisfaction is, however, far from complete: “There is room for improvement in terms of physical and digital reception as well as support for those who risk remaining away from this essential public service. » A downside which joins the diagnosis of the Defender of Rights, issued in 2019 and reiterated in 2022 on “inequalities in public service” linked to the dematerialization of procedures. First concerned: disabled, precarious and/or elderly people.
On the map of Gironde, these inequalities are linked to the territorial distribution of municipalities equipped with DR. The most isolated areas, notes the CRC, are North-Médoc, the fringes of Libournais, the metropolitan area and South-Gironde. The most rural areas. What this figure confirms: if 96% of municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants (all except Léognan) are equipped, no municipality with less than 500 inhabitants is.
“The most isolated areas are the North-Médoc, the fringes of Libourne, the metropolitan area and the South-Gironde”
With a double penalty because, if rural people can (in theory) make an appointment to an equipped town from the website of their own village, the Chamber notes that, out of the 535 communes of Gironde, “nearly a hundred n 'don't have a website'. And when they do have it, “the information is often insufficient or not up to date”.
Last obstacle: some municipalities are not yet connected to the platform of the National Agency for Secure Titles (ANTS, now France Titles), which prevents the user from having visibility on the slots offered by cities equipped with DR near his home. This includes Bègles, Blanquefort, Pessac and Talence.
Anticipate 2031
How many Girondins penalized by these pitfalls? The CRC estimates that there are several tens of thousands of those who are not able to physically move around easily (reduced mobility, residents in nursing homes, etc.) And several hundred thousand of those who are far from digital – what we call “ilelectronism”. “It’s like asking a paraplegic to walk,” one of their interlocutors told the magistrates.
Hence the recommendations of the CRC, such as the strengthening (in Bordeaux) of the information given to applicants for titles on the possibilities of supporting their procedures by France Services and digital advisors. Or again, the increase (in Bordeaux and Mérignac) in the rate of increase of mobile DRs which make it possible to “go towards” populations in difficulty.
Saint-André-de-Cubzac gets a slap on the wrist from the magistrates, who accuse him of a “discriminatory practice”: receiving his own constituents without an appointment. But at the same time, they give him a good point for his support of applicants.
In conclusion of its report, the CRC emphasizes the need to anticipate a “major shock” on the demand for securities by 2030: due to a change in Community law, card holders non-biometric identity (in CB format, issued since 2021) will no longer be able to circulate in the European Union from March 3, 2031. Good to know.
