the prefect of Ile-de-France recalls that Paris 2024 must assume “the costs incumbent on the organization of the events”

This is like a little reminder, if not to order at least to its missions, for the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop). “We insist with the Cojop: Paris 2024 must work with the local authorities to assure them in particular that it will bear the costs incumbent on the organization of the events”, declared Marc Guillaume, the prefect of Ile-de-France, during the plenary assembly of the regional council from Ile-de-France, on March 30.

This clarification followed an intervention by Jean-Philippe Luce, of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), who had made himself the spokesperson for certain Ile-de-France municipalities deploring a “glaring lack of coordination” with Cojop “on essential subjects”, and fearing, above all, “to have to assume expenses that are not their responsibility”.

It is in particular the securing of certain tests which ” worry “ communities, according to the regional councillor, citing “the financial and organizational costs related to the surroundings of road events, in particular the marathon”with the establishment of a “double barrier, which is necessary and which [leur] will be requested”. “The user agreements that the Cojop tries to impose painfully try to make the communities contribute, which does not reassure them”, Mr. Luce added.

Mr. Guillaume sought to reassure by explaining that two meetings, held recently “under the aegis of the prefects of Seine-et-Marne and Yvelines” for the preparation of the events, led the organizers of the Games “to recognize that a very large part of the [coût du] barrier would be taken care of by them [par] a specific market.

“It surely remains to finalize this dialogue”he said, adding that “the department prefects, like ourselves, are there to try to remind Paris 2024 of the points raised”.

The Organizing Committee for the Games increased a number of its expenses when updating its budget in mid-December 2022, particularly those relating to security: +24 million euros compared to the previous budget, approved two years earlier. A large part of this increase comes from the reassessment of the cost that the rental of the barriers should represent: +11.5 million euros on this item alone, now estimated at 24 million euros.

Paris 2024 explained this increase by needs in linear meters of barriers revised upwards by 40%, as well as by a surge in certain unit rental prices for this equipment following calls for tenders.