 He served as the minister of public administration and regional affairs from 1996 to 2001 in the cabinets led by firstly Romano Prodi, then by Massimo D'Alema and lastly by Giuliano Amato.He was also president of "Astrid", a think-tank specialising in the study of institutional and administrative reform.As a member of the administrative council of the ENA, in 2007 he was called by Nicolas Sarkozy to take part in the "Commission pour la libération de la croissance française", presided over by Jacques Attali and designed to reform France's administration.