DFor several years, the public inquiry has been in the hot seat. The executive considers that it hinders the development of projects whose realization is necessary and urgent. It constantly restricts its field of application or reduces its duration.
Think tanks assess its relevance in the light of the notion of public utility, which is so multifaceted that it has become elusive. Historian Frédéric Graber even evokes the notion of“public uselessness” (Editions Amsterdam, 2022).
The role and personality of the investigating commissioner are highly contested. The reality of its function is masked by an outdated name. However, it is an activity that fulfills an undeniable social role of territorial anchoring of projects by listening to the concerns of citizens. These public service considerations take place in a context where the “setting to music” of public participation is increasingly a matter for the private sector.
The public inquiry is both a procedure and a process. A procedure finely framed by a corpus of legislative and regulatory texts which oblige the project owner to respect imposed figures proposing a consultation to the citizens and guaranteeing a minimum of quality to his project. Thus, the existence of a binding procedure at the end of the process contributes to improving the plan and the operation under investigation.
Political misconduct and democratic denial
The public inquiry is also an original form of participation. Its detractors have good reason to say that the consultation, to really weigh, must be located upstream and not at the end, when everything is closed.
In fact, there is room for both of these stages: upstream, the establishment of co-construction with actors, most often collective; downstream, with the collection of the opinion of the public directly confronted with the effects of the project, without having been able to measure its real consistency. The public inquiry serves as their mouthpiece. The negative effects of a development are often suffered by those who did not see it coming. Should we prevent them from expressing themselves at the risk of despairing of consultation?
In fact, it is about inserting a development in a territory with respect for the inhabitants and biodiversity. To think that citizens have nothing to say is a political fault and a democratic denial.
Examining the profile of investigating commissioners requires passing through the evolution of the notion of public utility. There was a time when the general interest of a development was obvious. There was a consubstantial link between the project and its economic utility. With the case law of the Council of State ” New East Town » of 1971, the theory of the assessment is essential.
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