Guide to National and Ministerial Orders

This guide is intended as the indispensable working document for all those within our central and decentralised administrations who are responsible for drawing up nomination files for our honorary distinctions on behalf of French or foreign citizens put forward for possible appointment to one of our French national or ministerial orders. The document follows a standardised structure. Its ambition is fourfold: to provide the essential information required for the preparation of nomination files, to disseminate best practices, to highlight pitfalls to avoid in order to ensure that forms are correctly completed, and to give public officials a tool for comparison with currently applicable notes and circulars. In this respect it innovates and usefully complements the many excellent works dealing with our civil and military decorations, including the booklet "Législation et réglementation — Légion d'honneur — Médaille militaire — ordre national du Mérite" published by the éditions des Journaux officiels, which brings together all the fundamental texts and subsequent amendments. This first edition includes in an annex a summary of the latest regulatory provisions adopted in 2008 by the President of the Republic. It briefly sets out the most recent information concerning the preparation of nomination files. In addition, this work specifies, among other things: the various award processes, a reminder of the rules in force for the submission of candidatures, sample pre-completed nomination files, the procedures for appointment (or promotion), and the decrees setting the quotas of crosses for the period from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2014. A colour photograph of each decoration accompanies this edition.