The Council of State has deemed “illegal” the backtracking operated by the government last July following the rumble of bikers.
SourceAFP
© Stephanie Para / MAXPPP / PHOTOPQR/THE MOUNTAIN/MAXPPP
Published on
– Modified
Link copied
Copy link
VS’is a new twist that should again cause the rumble of bikers. The Council of State reinstated, Monday, October 31, the technical control for two-wheelers. “The decision taken by the government on July 25 to reverse the application of technical inspection to two-wheelers, which it had initially decided in August 2021, is illegal”, thus explained the highest administrative court in a press release, considering that it was an “excess of power”.
According to the Council of State, the abolition of technical control should have been subject to public consultation “given its direct and significant impact on the environment”. Furthermore, the measures since proposed by the government to derogate from the European obligation of technical inspection “do not comply” with European requirements “because they are only at the draft stage or because they do not allow to improve the safety of motorcyclists on the road in a sufficiently effective and significant way”, specifies the institution.
The effective implementation of the technical inspection may be accompanied by “application measures” relating to a “staggering over time” or even a “differentiation according to the age of the vehicle”.
The entry into force will not be “immediate”
“The government takes note of the decision of the Council of State”, reacted the ministry in a press release. He underlines however that “this decision does not lead to an immediate entry into force of the technical control, taking into account the need to publish beforehand the texts of application” of the decree reinstated by the Council of State. “A consultation will be launched by the Minister in charge of Transport with all the parties concerned in the coming days in order to determine the measures to be implemented”, continued the ministry.
In 2014, the European Commission introduced the obligation for all countries of the European Union to institute, before the start of 2022, a technical inspection for two-wheelers over 125 cm3. In the heart of summer 2021, the French government had finally published a decree establishing it, but only from the beginning of 2023.
First twist, Emmanuel Macron had immediately assured that he would never apply this decision, because “it was not the time to bother the French”, according to an adviser to the executive. The Minister of Transport at the time, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, had therefore suspended it by decree.
The Respire, Ras le Scoot and Paris Sans Car associations had seized the Council of State under an emergency procedure to demand the application of the European directive as soon as possible. And the highest administrative court in the country had agreed with them in May, ordering the executive to apply it from October 2022.
On July 26, there was a new twist, with the publication of a decree by which the government repealed the very first decree establishing this control, arguing that a clause in European legislation allowing “alternative measures” to be taken instead. It was on this decree of July, attacked again by the same NGOs, that the Council of State ruled this time, the public rapporteur recommending its cancellation at the hearing.