The procedure launched against the organizers of the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps is unprecedented in Olympic history. France has had to clarify the absence of public debate around this winter’s Olympics, particularly regarding environmental issues, following the receipt of two requests submitted by a group of citizens, elected officials and associations.
These two references were submitted on Tuesday to the Aarhus Committee, a UN watchdog body that emerged from the Aarhus Convention, a treaty signed in 1998, intended to guarantee public information and participation in environmental issues, and ratified by France in 2002.
Therefore, this Geneva-based agency has done just that “declared acceptable” Wednesday 19 November, “previously”request is made. With a common thread, this question: have the organizers of the 2030 Olympics made every effort to involve citizens in discussions regarding the project, in accordance with what is stipulated in the agreement? Not for the collective of JOP 2030 citizens who, together with several organizations, including the France Nature Environment and the Human Rights League, as well as eleven LFI parliamentarians, are the masterminds of these two requests.
Regarding the benefits, applicants regret their total absence “community participation in the decision-making process”before the nominations and also since the attribution of the 2030 Olympics in July 2024, despite the environmental impacts – from reception and transport infrastructure to water storage to powering snow cannons – on an already weakened mountain environment.
“From the start, citizens were denied the opportunity to express themselves in public debate”already regrettable in mid-September the lawyer of the JOP 2030 collective, Jérôme Graefe, asked “constitutional rights”.
This candidacy, submitted in late 2023 by Laurent Wauquiez and Renaud Muselier, presidents of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (Aura) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (Paca) regions, is “by ignoring any information or publication and consultation of the citizens concerned”according to LFI representative from Savoie Jean-François Coulomme, and “resulting in major economic, social and environmental consequences”.
Water and mountain resources are weakening due to global warming, “on a social level, we are sold fixed-term jobs, where these Olympics will use volunteers”denounced Jean-François Coulomme.
Another important point: the location of the 2030 Alpine Games, divided into four poles (also called “clusters” in Olympic jargon) starting from Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie) to Nice, a distance of more than 500 km by road.
Despite various requests for participation from citizens by collecting petitions “more than 70,000 signatures”according to Jérôme Graefe, project leader “so far refrain from contacting the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP), to prevent contradictory debates”for holding the event.
“The party attacked, therefore France, has five months from written notification to submit additional arguments”explained Jean Rodriguez, spokesperson for the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which provides the Aarhus committee secretariat.
Once France’s response is received, the committee will decide whether to examine the merits of both requests. He then could “indicate whether France has failed to meet one or more of its environmental obligations, and explain in detail which obligations” and proposed fixing it, Jean Rodriguez said.
“This historic first decision should call on France to stop giving its citizens a fait accompli and immediately organize a public debate on the holding of the Olympics and its chances.”JOP 2030 collective forecast on Wednesday, denouncing a “democratic rejection”.
Cojop, the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee, believes that this is a good thing. “expected decision”as assured by sources close to the Committee. The instructions will now open “will make it possible to demonstrate clearly that all legal consultation obligations have been fulfilled”, added this same source. “It will also be an opportunity to remember that this project is coming this region, which has been supported from the start by democratic institutions representing society.” The next step is planned for April 2026.
