France accused by associations of “major violations” of the right of access to justice in environmental matters

It is a decision as discreet as it is important. The Aarhus Committee, a UN body responsible for ensuring compliance with the Aarhus Convention on access to justice in environmental matters, has ruled admissible the procedure initiated against France by Greenpeace, France Nature Environnement and The Sphinx, learned The world.

The three associations denounce “Major violations by France of the public’s right of access to justice in environmental matters” and especially “a systematic violation of the right of access to an independent and impartial tribunal before the Constitutional Council”. The decision was notified on February 21 to the French government, which now has until July 21 to respond. Contacted, the Ministry of Ecological Transition says ” to study “ the folder.

Before arriving before the Aarhus committee, the case made a few detours in the French courts. It starts in July 2021 before the administrative court of Versailles: the student association La Sphinx files an appeal to obtain the cancellation of the building permit granted to TotalEnergies in April to build a research center on the Polytechnique campus. The action is rejected on the basis of article L. 600-1-1 of the town planning code. Amended by the ELAN law (evolution of housing, development and digital technology) of November 23, 2018, said article restricts the admissibility of appeals to associations whose statutes have been filed ” less than a year ” before the authorization request is posted at the town hall. A way to prevent, according to the legislator, the blocking of new real estate projects by associations created for the occasion.

Impartiality of the questioned decision

The Sphinx, which brings together students and alumni of Polytechnique, was created in 2017. But it filed its new statutes integrating environmental protection in February 2021, less than a year before the display. Considering that the new provision of the town planning code violates its rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, the association requests that a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) be transmitted. It is rejected by the court. The NGO then files an appeal before the Council of State. The highest administrative court sends the QPC to the Constitutional Council on 1^er February 2022. Two months later, the advisers render their decision: because they aim to prevent abusive appeals, the restrictions induced by the ELAN law do not disproportionately affect the right to an effective judicial remedy and are therefore deemed to be in conformity to the Constitution.

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