The file is well advanced concerning the compensation of the victims of the explosion of the street of Trévise. Two days before the commemoration of this tragedy, which took place on January 12, 2019 and leaving 4 dead and 66 injured, the Paris municipality announced on Tuesday that “the framework compensation agreement had been signed” the day before.
“Monday January 10, after several working meetings, all stakeholders validated the drafting of the framework agreement for compensation for victims”, thus welcomes the Paris municipality on Tuesday morning.
Concretely, this agreement contains the “recognition of the exceptional character of the explosion under terms which remain confidential”, explained the first deputy to the town hall of Paris, also in charge of town planning, Emmanuel Grégoire, explaining that a Council of Extraordinary Paris should be summoned to validate this agreement “probably” on Monday January 17th.
Three years of waiting
Good news, which took nearly three years to arrive, in particular because of the lack of case law in this case. On the one hand, victims – forced to advance their medical expenses and feeling abandoned by the public authorities – pressed for rapid compensation, on the other, the municipality – indicted as part of the investigation still underway. course – waited to be certain to be able to compensate them, without this presuming of his legal guilt.
A particularly long legal verification process, launched more than a year ago and carried out by the team of the interministerial delegate for victim assistance (Diav), Frédérique Calandra, who concluded last September that the participation of the Parisian community to a framework compensation agreement did not imply any prior acknowledgment of guilt. In October, Emmanuel Grégoire had therefore announced that the City of Paris would release 20 million euros for this compensation.
“Upon receipt of this opinion, several meetings followed one another within the framework of a judicial mediation in order to draw up the framework agreement in accordance with the analysis of the Ministry of Justice and accepted by all the parties. On November 16, 2021, the Council of Paris unanimously voted to provision a sum of 20 million euros for the financing of the compensation system for victims in this context, ”explains the municipality, which emphasizes that this Monday January 10, 2022, one last meeting […] “Led to the validation of the framework agreement for compensation for victims”
To achieve this, two experts were commissioned by the State to monitor the compensation of victims and ensure compliance with the framework agreement. And the Parisian municipality denies having wanted to play the watch, reminding for months not to be alone in this file. In addition, the other parties involved in this case – the trustee, GRDF, the insurer of the Generali union council and the construction company Fayolle – were indeed also to take part in the framework compensation agreement. Which they did yesterday, even though their terms were kept confidential.
As for the question of whether the 20 million euros provided by the Parisian municipality will be sufficient, the victims’ associations answer “no”, stressing that the estimate of the total of property and personal injury amounts to 200 million euros. . The town hall “will have to complete at some point,” said Linda Zaourar, the president of the association Vret (Victims and survivors of the explosion in the rue de Trévise). It remains to be seen how many are willing to put the other parties involved.