An entrepreneur claims 164 million euros from Monaco before the ECHR

The ECHR, which sits in Strasbourg, confirmed to AFP that it had registered the request on Monday. She will now have to determine whether it is admissible.

Contacted by AFP, the Monegasque government declared that it had “taken note” of this request, without further comment.

In 2020, the Supreme Court of Monaco ordered the Monegasque State to pay this company a sum of 136 million euros, plus legal interest from 2018, for the abandonment of a large-scale real estate transaction known as of the Esplanade des Pêcheurs.

Launched in 2014, this operation should have led to the construction, in the port of Monaco, of the Center for Man and the Sea, a museum intended to house the collections of underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio. Accompanied by shops, offices and housing, this future complex was designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti.

The government then withdrew and the entrepreneur obtained his conviction before the Supreme Court, the local constitutional court whose decisions are not subject to appeal in the principality.

However, after the 2020 conviction, an agreement was reached to restart the project and Caroli Immo waived the compensation in exchange for a timetable to launch the work.

But, according to the Caroli company in this request that AFP was able to consult, the company "was forced to abandon the project (...) following numerous appeals initiated by companies belonging to another Monegasque entrepreneur, against which the State of Monaco has not acted, Mr. Patrice Pastor".

Caroli Immo therefore proceeded in October 2023 to unilaterally terminate the amicable agreement entered into with the State, thus reversing its waiver of the contentious compensation.

But when he asked the Monegasque state for the money, the latter did not respond, showing "its desire not to pay", according to the request.

This request comes against the backdrop of a battle for market share in real estate construction in Monaco, with the Pastor company seeing its predominance challenged by its main competitors.

Real estate prices in the microstate located on the Côte d'Azur can reach astronomical amounts, up to 120.000 euros per square meter.

This new referral to the ECHR against Monaco is the third after that of French judge Édouard Levrault in 2020 following his non-renewal in the principality and, more recently, of Claude Palmero, the former administrator of crown property. complainant for not having benefited from a fair trial after his dismissal.