Public debate on the 2030 Olympics: the State Council's public rapporteur calls for the annulment of a court decision

The public rapporteur of the Council of State recently voted to overturn an order from the administrative court of Marseille which required more transparency towards the general public from the establishment in charge of delivering the Olympic venues for the 2030 Games.

In 2025, the JOP 2030 Citizen Collective launched several procedures, notably before the administrative courts of Lyon, Marseille and Paris, to demand a consultation of the population on the organization of the 2030 Winter Games.

In January, the judge of the summary proceedings of the administrative court of Marseille demanded more transparency from Solideo, responsible for delivering the Olympic works, ordering it to mention "the objectives and essential characteristics of the works and indicating its decision to refer or not to the National Commission for Public Debate, regarding the decision to carry out these works."

The public institution then announced an appeal to the Council of State, stating that it "contested the legal reasoning." It declared itself "already fully committed to a consultation process on all Olympic venues, similar to the public meetings already held in 2025 in La Plagne, Saint-Jean-de-Sixt, and Nice."

On Wednesday, the public rapporteur of the Council of State - whose conclusions are often followed by the magistrates of the highest French administrative court - recommended "the annulment of the order" of the judge of the Marseille court and the "rejection of the requests submitted" by the initial applicants, AFP noted.

"These are conclusions that are not favorable to us. So probably the CNDP will not be seized and Solideo will not have to publish the information that allows the referral," summarized Paul Mathonnet, one of the lawyers representing members of the collective composed of citizens, elected ecologists and Insoumis, as well as associations like Mountain Wilderness, after the hearing.

He nevertheless expressed hope to AFP that the State Council's decision, expected within a few days or weeks, could "bring about a useful legal breakthrough for the future" by recognizing that these Games constitute "an inseparable project", a "notion" on which the group could rely to demonstrate that the total cost of the Olympic works reaches the threshold necessary for a public debate procedure.