What if Christian Estrosi had been shrewd in calling for the end of the toll on the Nice bypass of the A8 motorway? In fact, the standoff between the authorities and the motorway companies is ongoing.
This Wednesday, deputies once again called to denounce the motorway concession contracts signed in 2006 in order to renegotiate them. They submitted a report to the National Assembly and will present another to the Senate to “take control” of the issue, according to Jean-Paul Chanteguet, the deputy rapporteur.
If that were the case or if this report gave the state the means to pressure the concessionaires and obtain some advantageous changes at the margin, the case of Nice could quite legitimately be included.
Given the configuration of the urban fabric, the peculiarity of the road network is particularly unfavorable to urban and peri-urban mobility of local traffic.
The request from the Mayor of Nice is more than relevant, and if a window for negotiation between public authorities and concessionaires opened up, it would be wise to assert the legitimate interests of the local population.
Mr. Chanteguet emphasized that such a measure, to escape what he called the “implacable mechanics” of the current legal framework, was possible in the name of the general interest, and was indeed provided for by articles in the concession contracts.
For it to take effect at the beginning of 2016, this denunciation should occur by the end of the current year, he warned. “The urgency is for public authorities to make a decision,” he noted.
During the presentation of the text before the Commission for Sustainable Development and Territorial Planning, the rapporteur stressed that this denunciation would not mean nationalization, as it should, in his opinion, be followed by a “comprehensive renegotiation” with the companies “based on revised specifications.”
Relations between motorway concession companies (SCA) and the government have become strained recently, especially after the mid-September publication by the Competition Authority of a report denouncing the “rents” of these companies since the 2006 privatization, against a backdrop of tolls rising faster than inflation.
The concessionaires argue on their part that their profitability is much lower than the 20% or more mentioned by the Competition Authority, as it must be calculated over the entire duration of the concessions, which is about thirty years.
