the supreme formation of the ECHR seized of a request against France

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has entrusted to its supreme formation, the Grand Chamber, an application filed against France by the former environmentalist mayor of Grande-Synthe (North) Damien Carême, who accuses him of an action insufficient against global warming, announced the ECHR on Tuesday 7 June. According to the press service of the Court contacted by AFP, the hearing should be held “around the end of the year”.

The ECHR, which sits in Strasbourg, generally entrusts its Grand Chamber, made up of 17 judges of the Court including its President, with the cases it considers to be the most important. For Damien Carême, mayor of Grande-Synthe from 2001 to 2019 and MEP (EELV) since 2019, “the failure of the authorities to take all useful measures allowing France to respect the maximum levels of greenhouse gas emissions that it has set itself constitutes a violation of the obligation to guarantee the right to life”says the court.

According to the former mayor, France has also violated its “right to a normal private and family life”guaranteed in the same way by the European Convention on Human Rights, considering itself as “directly affected” by the shortcomings in the fight against global warming.

The Court of Strasbourg recalls that on July 1, 2021, the Council of State had ordered the French government “to take additional measures by March 31, 2022 to achieve the objective – resulting from the Paris Agreement – ​​of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030”. The highest French administrative court, again recalls the ECHR, had argued that “Compliance with the set emission reduction targets, which notably provide for a 12% reduction for the period 2024-2028, did not appear possible if new measures were not adopted quickly”.

The Council of State was already seized by the municipality of Grande-Synthe. Located on the outskirts of Dunkirk, this coastal town felt threatened by rising sea levels.