The Council of State censors a decree implementing the “zero net artificialization” system

The government is called upon to review its copy. Seized of two decrees implementing the “zero net artificialization” (ZAN) system, the Council of State censored one on Wednesday October 4. In a press release, the institution explained that the decree in question “does not contain the necessary details” : the text of the law required the government to specify at what scale artificialized areas should be identified.

By 2050, the ZAN must gradually put an end to the urbanization of natural, agricultural or forest areas. With this decision, the Council of State did not, however, call into question its application: questioned on the subject,The Ministry of Ecological Transition mentioned censorship “on a technical point”not putting back “in no way calls into question the merits of the reform”. New decrees will be published at the end of October, the ministry promised.

Included in the Climate and Energy Law of 2021, ZAN does not have the support of all local elected officials, in particular Laurent Wauquiez, who excluded his region from this objective. The Council of State also rejected a request from the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), which referred it to it in June 2022. The AMF had requested the annulment of the two implementing decrees, ruling that they had been written “in haste, without impact study” And “in a rigid re-centralization approach”. All “complies with the 2021 law” replied the Council of State to the mayors.