The LREM deputy Cécile Muschotti proposes this Friday, in a report commissioned by Jean Castex, the creation of a "Defender of the environment and future generations", in line with a suggestion of the Citizen's Convention for the climate.
"Our system for protecting the environment and taking into account citizens' expectations is not clear enough today and lacks efficiency," notes the elected representative of the Var in this report submitted on Friday and which AFP reported on. had copy.
It promotes the creation of such an independent authority, rather than a new competence for the Defender of Rights, for reasons of “incarnation” and “impartiality”.
The members of the Citizens' Convention had recommended a year ago "an in-depth analysis in order to consider the creation of a new control body which could be an Environmental Defender, on the model of the Defender of Rights" and which would be anchored in the Constitution.
In the process, Jean Castex had entrusted Ms. Muschotti with the mission of “studying the conditions for creating” such a “mediating structure between the political and administrative apparatus of the State and our fellow citizens”.
On the model of the defender of rights
According to the deputy, "the missions of the Defender of the Environment and of future generations should therefore be directly inspired by that of the Defender of Rights: one-stop shop as a gateway for citizens, organizer of the environmental public consultation (...), mediator at all times, council of public authorities, facilitator of societal debate and environmental education ”.
"Entrusting him with public policy evaluation missions, relying on a network of external expertise, could also strengthen this new authority", she adds, arguing that the new defender "could be a real showcase for 2022, because it responds to a citizen's will as much as to a moral and ethical obligation ”. But during the debate before the National Assembly in March on the executive's plan to include the climate in the Constitution, Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti said he was unfavorable to an environmental defender. "We do not wish to increase the number of independent administrative authorities," he had opposed to a PS amendment.
