The ZFEs are saved by the Constitutional Council. The Wise Men announced this Thursday to censure the elimination of low-emission zones, as well as the relaxation of the rules against the artificialization of land, considering that these measures introduced in the simplification law were “legislative cavaliers”, without sufficient link with the initial text. Seized of the bill by socialists, ecologists but also deputies from the government camp wishing to preserve ecological markers of Macron’s first five-year term, the Council totally or partially censored 25 articles out of 84, or a little less than a third of the text.
ZFEs, implemented in 2019
After having survived three changes of Prime Minister and a dissolution, the text continued to swell during a chaotic examination in Parliament, to the point of becoming “catch-all”, according to its supporters and its detractors. Without being “the big night” of simplification according to its own promoters, it cuts some standards weighing on companies, eliminates certain consultative bodies, also facilitates the deployment of data centers and simplifies the construction of certain projects.
At the Assembly, the right and the far right, however, had a shock measure adopted: the pure and simple abolition of “low emission zones” (ZFE), environmental marker of Macron’s first five-year term. Initiated in 2019, extended in 2021, these zones intend to limit emissions of fine particles, responsible for respiratory illnesses and deaths, by prohibiting certain vehicles based on Crit’Air stickers. But in all political groups, including those in favor, the measure is judged to be poorly constructed or insufficiently supported as it stands, and potentially generating injustice for certain households who cannot afford to change vehicles.
« Legislative Knight »
The Council did not rule on the constitutionality of their deletion as such, but invoked “constant case law”, which provides that it censors any measure introduced by amendment which does not have a sufficient link with a provision of the initial text (“legislative rider”). Â And he considered that the removal of ZFEs, absent from the initial text, was therefore not on point.
In the shadow of the ZFE, another reform dividing the government camp was brought before the Sages by the socialists, the ecologists, and, something rare, by 70 deputies from the government camp. It concerned “zero net artificialization” (ZAN), a national system to combat land concreting by 2050. But here again the Council judged that it was a “legislative cavalier”, without commenting on the constitutionality of the measure in substance.
/2026/05/21/6a0ed4c9264db808477893.jpg "Faced with strong global demand, Airbus expands its Seville factory to convert civilian planes into military aircraft.")
