From delay to start-up. It took years and a decision by the Council of State for the technical inspection of powered two-wheelers to just begin to become a reality in France. In the bins for at least two years, and while everyone agrees that "everything is ready", the application of this new directive - yet desired by the European Commission since 2014 - is still awaited. So much so that a question arises: why what has already been mandatory since 1992 for cars takes so long to see the light of day for scooters and motorcycles?
" READ ALSO The Council of State gives two months to the government to establish the technical control of two-wheelers
A blockade at the Élysée?
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It's mostly political," says Tony Renucci, the director general of the association Respire, which has been fighting for several years to set up the technical control for motorized two-wheelers which must above all make it possible to fight against air and noise pollution. "If we go back to the history of this subject, it has been going on for a long time: first there was the directive of the European Commission in 2014, then the government decree in August 2021, which finally did not last more than a day, canceled by Emmanuel Macron," he recalls, recalling that at the time, "we leave the sequence of yellow vests", We are "in the middle of a presidential campaign" and everyone "fears the crystallization of conflicts".
As a result, "more sound, more image" and "since the sequence only lasts", regrets the associative activist, who accuses the government "of playing for time for two years (...) not to assume a decision that was nevertheless going to be imposed on him". Supported by the associations Ras le Scoot and Paris sans voiture, Respire had urgently seized the Council of State to demand the application of the European directive as soon as possible. The highest administrative court of the country had finally taken the decision to "reinstate the decree that provides for the technical control of motorized two-wheeled vehicles", ordering the executive to apply it as planned on January 1, 2023 "according to a schedule of staggering controls by age of vehicles".
Asked about this, the Minister Delegate for Transport Clément Beaune reacted to the announcement of the Council of State on Friday, saying that the government "would of course apply the decision of the Council of State" and that he himself "would specify in the coming days the schedule and modalities of the technical control". What about the long time of the implementation of the technical control of powered two-wheelers? The minister defends himself and ensures that he has regularly worked on it since the decision of the Council of State: "I have conducted in-depth consultations in recent months with motorcycle associations and environmental and road safety associations".
A decision "difficult to counter"
For his part, Didier Arnoux, the general delegate of the Angry Bikers (FFMC) ensures that the implementation of a technical control in the coming months is unthinkable. "Once the order is made, the law obliges the government to launch a public consultation of 6 weeks," he continues, without counting, according to him, that the technical control centers have to date "neither the equipment nor the staff" to carry out these controls. "How do you expect people who have never done technical inspections of two-wheelers to be able to do it overnight?" he asks. Considering that the decision of the Council of State - which, in his eyes, "clearly disavowed the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Transport" - is "legally difficult to counter", the director of the FFMC promised, however, that he would do "everything possible" so that the implementing decree is not taken.
Calls for "alternative measures" to mandatory roadworthiness testing to be put in place, citing in particular the conversion bonus to help people move towards more virtuous models, the implementation of the obligation to wear gloves for drivers and passengers or the strengthening of communication, with prevention campaigns to improve the safety of all motorized two-wheeler drivers. A solution that was "supported at the time by the Minister of Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari" and which had "not been rejected by the European Commission", insists Didier Arnoux, who regrets today that the Council of State "gives right to three associations that know nothing about it".
Two speeches that clash completely, while Tony Renucci says that by seizing the Council of State, the associations Respire, Ras le Scoot and Paris without car had finally "done service" to the government, favorable to the establishment of this technical control, but which did not want to "assume the responsibility of making this decision". ». But today, the State "has no choice" and must apply the decision "within two months", considering that otherwise, it would become "very worrying" to no longer respect the decisions of the Council of State. However, the director of the association Respire admits that there could be "need for a little time for the implementation" concrete technical control for motorized two-wheelers, in order to equip the centers and train technicians.