East-west inequalities persist within Greater Paris

Created in 2016, the MGP is an intercommunity which brings together Paris, the communes of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne as well as seven communes of Essonne and Val-d'Oise .

The CRC recalls that it concentrates the "first office park, the first employment center and the first research and development center in Europe", and it is also "the first world tourist destination".

The richest territory in France, with 25% of the GDP for 11% of the population, it is also "unequal" with within it the poorest department of the metropolis, Seine-Saint-Denis.

According to the Parisian Urban Planning Workshop, income inequalities "are the highest of all French metropolises".

And according to the CRC, the “East-West imbalance” is growing: “between 2001 and 2016, the trend is towards widening gaps”.

In her analysis, she recalls that the MGP was formed "in order to reduce inequalities between the territories that compose it", particularly in terms of economic attractiveness.

Despite the 600 development projects in progress and 400 others to come by 2030, particularly around the Olympic Games and the Grand Paris Express, the MGP "only weakly exercises its competence in development", underline the authors.

The planning policy, transferred on paper to the intermunicipality, "remained in the hands of the municipalities" pending the final adoption of the planning documents" of the MGP, which took place in July 2023.

As a result, “few operations are thought out, decided and carried out taking into account a global strategy, conducive to rebalancing the territory”, summarize the authors.

The president of the MGP Patrick Ollier responds that "the Metropolis is recent, it has existed since 2016 and the national representation has not entrusted it with the same skills as most other French metropolises, particularly in terms of planning", a skill shared with the municipalities or intermunicipalities specific to the MGP.

The adoption of the territorial coherence plan will contribute "to giving greater coherence to the town planning policies to be carried out", the former minister wants to believe.