Almost two and a half years after the terrible explosion which left four dead, dozens injured and several hundred victims in the rue de Trévise, in Paris (IXth), a new meeting is organized this Thursday at the Chancellery on the compensation for victims… without the victims.
Only the City of Paris and the insurers are invited to discuss Place Vendôme.
It will deal with a convention also called a "framework agreement", which the victims despair of seeing signed, but which is far from unanimous.
In a letter sent Friday to the main players in the file, the associations are raising a cry of alarm.
“We have been waiting for months for the signing of a framework agreement whose purpose is to compensate victims.
We would like to take part in the meeting on June 10.
If we are not invited, we will not participate in any meeting in the future ”, announce the associations Vret (Victims and survivors of Treviso), Treviso Ensemble and Fenvac (National Federation of Victims of Attacks and Collective Accidents).
No trial for several years
At this stage, a judicial investigation is still in progress to determine the criminal responsibilities of this tragedy.
The City of Paris and the property manager of the building in front of which the explosion occurred were indicted in September 2020 for homicides and unintentional injuries.
The investigation continues but the holding of a trial is not looming for years.
But the issue of compensation can be dealt with without waiting for the legal outcome.
The catastrophes of AZF in Toulouse, the SNCF in Brétigny or the fatal collision in Millas are proof of this.
To read also "The situation is worse than after the explosion", according to a survivor
In fact, compensation has already partially started for victims of bodily injury.
It is Generali, the insurer of the building at 6, rue de Trévise, who takes care of it.
A sort of advance that can be reimbursed later to the insurer, once the responsibilities have been established by the courts.
To date, the insurer indicates that it is monitoring 154 victims, to whom € 1.78 million has been paid (€ 619,000 in provision and € 1.16 million in final compensation).
"Treated in an unworthy manner", according to the mayor of the 9th
What is the interest then in signing a framework agreement? "It allows amicable, full and rapid compensation for the damages of all victims, including those who do not have personal insurance or whose personal insurance is insufficient to fill these gaps", insist the Fenvac lawyers , Mes Frédéric Bibal, Jean-Baptiste Mahieu and Clarisse Serre. The fifteen-page draft agreement, which we were able to consult, provides for a five-year compensation schedule. In case of disagreement, the victims would still receive 80% of the proposed amount and could claim again during the trial. And that "independently of any responsibility", specifies from the outset the draft protocol.
The victims' associations base their request on a text of the Civil Code with constant jurisprudence since 1896. After the explosion of a steam tug, which had killed the mechanic who handled it, the owner of the machine was obliged to compensate the widow of the deceased worker.
Rue de Trévise, the gas explosion having occurred on the road, the victims therefore want the City of Paris and GRDF to engage in this compensation.
They have the support of Delphine Bürkli, the mayor (DVD) of the IXth: “The victims are treated in an unworthy manner, they are not ping-pong balls!
They can no longer have to justify their status.
"
The survivors threaten to bring GRDF to justice
By calling for the creation of a compensation fund, in November, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, however clearly returned the ball to the court of the state. "We must give the discussion a chance," tempers Frédérique Calandra, interministerial delegate for victim assistance since 2020, who is organizing the meeting on Thursday. "The Prime Minister has entrusted us with the task of organizing a meeting with the City of Paris to see if the conditions are met for a framework agreement" she said, considering this meeting as a "mediation" with a view to " positive solution for the victims ”.
At the Paris City Hall, we say “delighted that the State is piloting the subject, as requested by the mayor of Paris”. "We will participate in this meeting to find a solution to compensate the victims, as quickly and as efficiently as possible, after having explored all the legal and technical possibilities", replied Nicolas Nordman, deputy mayor of Paris in responsibility for victim assistance, which has not yet given an opinion on the framework agreement.
As for GRDF, it “will examine the draft convention, if it is invited to the negotiating table, necessarily with the other actors,” said the operator through the voice of his lawyer, Me Benoît Lavagne.
GRDF was not invited to the meeting on Thursday either.
If nothing changes, the victims took a date in September in court to summon GRDF for interim relief in order to obtain compensation advances.
AZF, Brétigny-sur-Orge: rapid agreements to compensate victims
Compensating victims after a disaster, the subject is not new in France.
Framework agreements, these agreements which organize compensation, with a methodology and a timetable, have frequently been concluded.
In 2001, after the AZF explosion in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), which left 31 dead and thousands injured; in 2013, in Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne), after the derailment of the Paris-Limoges intercity train, which killed seven people; in 2018, again, after the death of six children, in the collision of their coach and a train in Millas (Pyrénées-Orientales), at a level crossing. In these three cases, and many others still, agreements were signed shortly after the tragedy: one month for AZF, two months in Brétigny, three months after the tragedy of Millas.
"These agreements are possible when there is a will of the politician or the company concerned", decrypts Stéphane Gicquel, president of the new citizen observatory of the rights of victims. Victims, he supported during the eleven years when he was the face and voice of Fenvac (National Federation of Victims of Attacks and Collective Accidents). Attacks, explosions, crashes, fires… “We must prepare for the next events of this type, and if we miss Treviso, we will miss the treatment of the next disasters. There is a real issue of general interest ”he adds, attributing the blockage to the“ lack of political will ”of the mayor of Paris.
The protocols that we have been able to consult all stipulate, as a preliminary, that the parties agree “independently of all responsibilities” which will then be established in criminal proceedings.
Clearly, compensating does not amount to acknowledging previous guilt.
The insurers reimburse each other at the end, according to the degree of responsibility established by each party.
And if the victim considers the compensation too low, she can challenge it at trial but will still receive 80% of the proposed amount, within the time allowed by the agreement.
Over time, many give up claiming
Behind the scenes, we learn that a big boss more conciliatory than others "was yelled at by other big bosses, who felt that he was doing too much". The latter did not wish to speak. On condition of anonymity, an insurer, signatory to several of these agreements, confirms its interest in these agreements being signed as quickly as possible: “This agreement,” says one at the head office, makes it possible to give visibility during 'a large-scale event, it gives in particular an orientation on the calendar and the deadlines, the assumption of the first urgent costs, the medical and lawyer fees, as well as the payment of provisions ”.
Victims have an interest in this happening as quickly as possible.
Their defenders say it: over time, many give up on claiming, others die before the trial.
Few home insurance contracts cover the assumption of replacement rents beyond two or three years.
"The agreement is very useful, assures a lawyer of the file of the disaster of Millas.
It enabled us to settle the compensation fairly quickly and under good conditions so that we can now focus solely on the criminal aspect ”.
And judicial time can be long. In Brétigny-sur-Orge, the trial will open on April 24, 2022, nine years after the tragedy. "Compensation is the beginning of the recognition of damage, it is already the symbol of reparation", analyzes Thierry Gomès, founder of the association Mutual aid and defense of victims of the Brétigny disaster. He lost both of his parents in the drama.