It is the "construction site of the century", and its cost is also at the height of its ambition: pharaonic.
The Grand Paris Express is 4 new metro lines over 200 km underground around Paris, with 68 new stations.
A project in the middle of the ford, launched ten years ago, and which still has ten years of work, at least.
Its cost, reassessed in 2018, stands at nearly 36 billion euros.
And, faced with the lengthening of work deadlines and this increase in expenditure, new resources had to be found.
Today, the Senate decided to say "stop".
In a report that will be made public, the upper assembly points to “the costs to be better controlled” and “sustainable financing to be consolidated”.
Christine Lavarde, LR senator of Hauts-de-Seine and rapporteur of this text, explains.
"We could not change the Paris region tax system every year"
“For two years, with each finance bill, we have been asked to vote for tax increases in Paris and in the inner suburbs: the tax on offices, transfer duties, etc.
All the senators in Ile-de-France, from all sides, have decided to say stop.
We had to see it clearly.
We could not change the Ile-de-France tax system every year when we have no visibility on the real financing need for this project, ”explains Christine Lavarde.
The report recalls in particular the whole story that led to the construction of this automatic supermetro, the first rails of which were symbolically unveiled to the press this Thursday, October 29 in the tunnels of the future Noisy-Champs station.
Launched under Nicolas Sarkozy, confirmed by François Hollande, reassessed under Emmanuel Macron, the project has also seen its cost drop from 26 to 35.6 billion euros.
Its funding model has barely changed.
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"The project only lives on debt", summarizes Christine Lavarde.
Tax revenues (approximately 532 million euros per year at the start, a sum increased to 764 million this year), "are only used to raise debt" (several billion again this year).
Consequence: the debt of Greater Paris will not be repaid, according to forecasts, until… 2070. “In itself, this is not shocking for a transport infrastructure project that will be useful for decades.
We even suggested extending the debt amortization period beyond 2070, ”explains Christine Lavarde.
What the senators no longer want, however, are these purely Ile-de-France tax increases to finance the project.
“Basically, the state had to provide an endowment of 4 billion euros, which has never been done,” explains the senator.
The Grand Paris Express is a transport infrastructure that will benefit the whole of France, this was originally defined as such.
However, there is no State contribution, no community subsidy.
It is only the Ile-de-France taxpayer who pays.
"
Proposals for securing funding
Without calling everything into question, the Senate report, which is also based on the conclusions of another report, that of the Court of Auditors in 2018, makes seven proposals to improve the financing and governance of this project, the usefulness of which is no is never disputed.
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The senators propose in particular that the loan repayment period be lengthened, that the State put back to the pot in the event of "change in the economic conditions" of the project, and that the Société du Grand Paris itself finds certain own resources, today. hui almost zero (for example by passing fiber through its tunnels).
On the governance side, the asset management company is called upon to be more transparent with parliamentarians, to sign an “objectives and performance contract” with the State, and to welcome a member of Ile-de-France Mobilités to its supervisory board .
It is also requested that the impact of the Covid on the site be specified, even if we already know that lines 16 and 17, scheduled for 2024, will ultimately not be on Olympic time.