Minister Delegate for Transport Clément Beaune does not rule out postponing the opening to competition of the current RATP monopoly on buses in Ile-de-France, scheduled for January 1, 2025, if there is a risk of disruption of the 2024 Olympics, he told La Croix on Thursday.
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The left-wing opposition to Valérie Pécresse, president of the region and of the transport authority Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), has been campaigning for several months against the arrival of competition or for its postponement, believing that the market opening process is already having an impact on RATP's current difficulties.
The schedule for buses defined by a 2009 law "
coincides
" with the organization of the Olympics, 250 left-wing elected representatives from the Ile-de-France region highlighted in particular on Monday in an open letter to Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, seeing it as an additional argument against a "
big leap into the lowest social and into the organizational unknown
".
All of the Régie's unions are similarly opposed to the loss of its monopoly, hence the fear of strikes, in addition to a possible disorganization of the service.
Read alsoCompetition, preparation for the Olympic Games, strikes… the challenges of Jean Castex at the RATP
"
I will not make you believe that we are not thinking about it
," replied Clément Beaune, questioned by
La Croix
on the risk of disruption during the Olympics, organized six months before the deadline.
"
The community that has this responsibility is the region
," he noted, de facto designating IDFM.
“
It's up to her first to tell us the situation and the risks, we will discuss it, and I am open to all options.
“
Opening up to competition is a tool.
If it is relevant within the current schedule, then it should be used on the scheduled date.
If it is relevant at a later date, it must be activated later
, “said the minister, clearly throwing the ball back to Valérie Pécresse.
After putting buses in the outer suburbs into competition, IDFM has divided up the current RATP monopoly in the heart of the Paris region into twelve lots, and has already launched calls for tenders for four of them.
"
If it is decided to postpone the opening to competition, it will be a political choice
", they say in the entourage of its president.
“
We apply European legislation transcribed into French law.
(…) IDFM is in battle order to be ready for January 1, 2025
,” a spokesperson told AFP.