École nationale d'administration

The École nationale d'administration (French pronunciation: [ekɔl nɑsjɔnal dadministʁɑsjɔ̃]; ENA; English: National School of Administration) was a French grande école, created in 1945 by the then provisional chief of government Charles de Gaulle and principal co-author of the 1958 Constitution Michel Debré, to democratize access to the senior civil service. The school was frequently criticized from the 1970's onward for having built an incredibly elitist culture as well as being a stronghold for technocrats. As a result, it was dissolved on 31 December 2021 and replaced by the Institut national du service public (INSP).

The ENA selected and supervised the initial training of senior French officials. It was considered to be one of the most academically demanding French schools, both because of its low acceptance rates and because a large majority of its candidates had already graduated from other elite schools in the country such as Sciences Po or the École Polytechnique. Thus, within French society, the ENA stood as one of the main pathways to high positions in the public and private sectors. Indeed, 4 Presidents of France from the beginning of the 5th Republic in 1958 to the present day (including Emmanuel Macron) and multiple prime-ministers and ministers, studied at the ENA.

Originally located in Paris, it had been relocated to Strasbourg in order to emphasize its European character. It was based in the former Commanderie Saint-Jean, though continued to maintain a Paris campus. ENA produced around 80 to 90 graduates every year, known as étudiants-fonctionnaires, "enaos" or "énarques" (IPA: [enaʁk]). In 2002 the Institut international d'administration publique (IIAP) which educated French diplomats under a common structure with the ENA was merged with it. The ENA shares several traditions with the College of Europe, which was established shortly after.

In 2019, President Emmanuel Macron announced he would propose to abolish and replace the ENA. Macron is an ENA graduate himself, but the tight network of ENA graduates influencing the French civil service has been decried by populist protests such as the yellow vests movement as an elite governing class out of touch with the lower social classes. In April 2021, Macron confirmed the closure of the school, calling the closure "the most important reform of the senior public service" since the school's creation in 1945.