The Council of State on Friday rejected the appeal of two associations of elected officials against an order setting out the terms of adaptation of coastal municipalities in the face of coastal erosion, deeming their complaints about the legal and financial risks that it would cause to be unfounded. run to the communes.
The Association of Mayors of France (AMF) and the National Association of Coastal Authorities (Anel) had seized the highest administrative court in May 2022 in order to obtain guarantees on the obligation imposed on 126 municipalities to adapt in priority to coastal erosion worsened by global warming.
This ordinance relating to the sustainable development of coastal territories exposed to the retreat of the coastline was adopted on April 6, 2022 in application of the Climate and Resilience law of 2021.
The Council of State judged that the ordinance complied with the law and rejected the priority questions of constitutionality raised by the mayors.
In addition to a hasty consultation, the associations of elected officials criticized the government for a lack of information for the municipalities concerned on the diagnosis of their exposure to coastal erosion, on the consequences to which they would be subject in terms of unbuildability and on the financing of the measures put in place.
They also fear an increase in disputes in the event of expropriation and denounce State supervision over the choice of relocations.
Coastal municipalities have been waiting a long time for the tools and resources necessary to adapt to coastal erosion in order to avoid inextricable legal and human situations, they emphasized in a press release published in May 2022.
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However, the new tools proposed by the ordinance do not, according to them, meet this expectation, neither from the point of view of legal security, nor from the point of view of guaranteeing resources.
They also believe that the government’s text creates a break in equality between citizens exposed to the risk of submersion and owners of property subject to other major natural risks by establishing distinct methods of evaluating property.
Finally, mayors fear a hidden transfer of burdens from the State to municipalities, without dedicated financial resources, while the financial impact of coastal erosion is estimated at several tens of billions of euros.