Vinci demands 1.6 billion euros from the State

The project, half a century old, was abandoned in January 2018, after the occupation of the premises by opponents.

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A man on a bicycle in front of a farm opposite Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport, in Loire-Atlantique, January 17, 2018. (LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

The French construction group Vinci is demanding compensation of 1.6 billion euros from the State for the abandonment of the airport project at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, of which it was to be the concessionaire, declared Wednesday the administrative court of Nantes, confirming information from the newspaper West France.

During a hearing, the court considered two cases “opposing the company Aéroports du Grand Ouest and its main shareholders (…) to the State in relation to the abandonment of the airport project at Notre-Dame-des-Landes”the court wrote to AFP. “The compensation requested [par Vinci] amounts to 1.6 billion euros”, he clarified. Judgment will not be rendered “before two weeks minimum”. “We do not comment on a procedure that is still ongoing”Vinci told AFP.

On January 17, 2018, the government abandoned the construction of an airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, in Loire-Atlantique, a controversial fifty-year-old project whose abandonment led to violent evictions and gave way to a land puzzle to redistribute land in the Deferred Development Zone (ZAD). The concession company, Aéroport du Grand Ouest (AGO), 85% owned by Vinci, demanded compensation of “several hundred million euros”declared Élisabeth Borne, then Minister of Transport.


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