Construction of a highly controversial motorway, which is more than half-built, in south-west France must stop as the work is illegal, a court has ruled.
The Toulouse administrative court said that the A69 motorway between Castres and Toulouse did not include “imperative reasons of major public interest” and did not justify the environmental damage caused by its construction.
The court revoked the project’s environmental planning permission, making further work on the site illegal in a landmark decision.
It is the first time an administrative court has cancelled work on a motorway project for environmental reasons.
“The project has been suspended, with the sole exception of operations to ensure the safety of the site,” the court concluded in its statement.
The 53-km motorway is more than half-completed and was scheduled to open by the end of 2025. A ruling was expected in December 2024 but was delayed.
The French government is expected to appeal the court decision, with Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot calling it “absurd” in an interview.
He has asked the court to not implement the ban immediately and for work on the project to continue during the appeal process.
Around 40% of the earthworks, and 70% of the 200 or so crossings needed for the route have been completed, according to Atosca, the concessionary operator of the motorway.
Around €300 million of the €450 million budget for the route’s construction has already been spent.
Motorway has been subject of fierce debate
Environmentalists and locals have been battling against the motorway’s construction for years, with the road often the site of large protests.
These groups claim the project will cause severe environmental damage to areas along the route – notably due to the trees cut down on the road’s path – and that alternative possibilities to the motorway’s construction exist.
They were overjoyed about the decision.
“The bitumen has not been poured, everything remains reversible,” said Friends of the Earth Midi-Pyrénées.
It called the ruling a “historic victory for environmental law”.
La Voie est Libre, a group dedicated to ending the motorway’s construction, praised the “independent judgement despite the pressure exerted by public and economic authorities” on its website.
“This decision allows us to turn the page and avoid the worst, for the environment and fertile land, for everyone's access to safe and free transport, but also to avoid the financial fiasco that would have weighed heavily on public finances in the decades to come,” it added.
A protest in September 2024 saw protestors and police clash on the site, the most recent of several major actions taken by environmentalists against the motorway.
Read more: Police and activists clash as trees cut on A69 route in France
“We'll be talking about this for years to come,” said Julien Bétaille, a lecturer in environmental law at Toulouse Capitole university to AFP.
Read more: Explainer: What is a ZAD land zone and where are they in France?
Decision to be appealed, work may still continue
Environmental groups asked authorities “not to get bogged down in new legal proceedings,” over the matter, however this call has already fallen on deaf ears.
“This project is two-thirds completed, with more than 1,000 people working on the site and who will find themselves unemployed as of tomorrow,” said the Transport Minister to media outlet FranceInfo.
“In addition to the appeal, we are asking that the decision taken by the court not be implemented immediately and that the project be allowed to continue under the best possible conditions,” he added.
“With the project two-thirds completed, how can we go backwards?” he queried.
He also criticised “opponents who want to create panic in our country,” and who “move from project to project to prevent us from opening up areas of our country.”
Many against the decision
Several authorities have also criticised the ruling.
“[I will] stand by the people and businesses in the south of the Tarn who need this fast link, who support it very strongly because it is necessary to open up the Castres-Mazamet area,” said president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga.
“I'm also thinking today of the thousand or so employees working on this site whose jobs are under threat,” she added, but conceded she would “take note of the court’s decision”.
“It's a court decision that is basically quite incomprehensible,” said MP in the Tarn department Jean Terlier – both him and Miss Delga were quoted in local media FranceBleu.
“In 2021 the Conseil d'Etat… came to definitively validate the public utility of this motorway project… we obviously have judges who wanted to take on the judges of the Conseil d'Etat,” said the MP from French President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble party.
“This is all the more incomprehensible given that the administrative court has had 14 opportunities to suspend the work… at no time did the court indicate anything in terms of procedural irregularities,” he added. He said that he hoped work would resume ‘very soon” on the motorway.
The pharmaceutical group Pierre Fabre Laboratories – the largest employer in the area – has also threatened to pull out of the region.
The group will “give priority to areas with faster access… if the isolation becomes definitive,” said head of the group Pierre-Yves Revol following the decision.
There is also concern the decision may affect the construction of a high-speed rail line between Bordeaux and Toulouse that has also been criticised by environmentalists.
Read more: Work finally starts on new high-speed train line Bordeaux to Toulouse
