The Paris Administrative Court of Appeal canceled, on Friday March 3, a grant of 100,000 euros granted in 2019 by the City of Paris to the NGO SOS Méditerranée, a decision for which the migrant relief organization is considering an appeal. before the Council of State.
By providing this grant, “the Council of Paris must be regarded as having intended to take sides and interfere in matters relating to the foreign policy of France and the competence of the institutions of the European Union, as well as in disputes, of a political nature, between States members “judge the magistrates.
Since 2015, SOS Méditerranée has regularly chartered boats in the Mediterranean to rescue migrants trying to reach Europe by sea. Its expeditions, and those of other NGOs, have been the source of diplomatic disputes between EU Member States. European Union, who passed on the responsibility of welcoming the rescued migrants.
In July 2019, the town hall of Paris, led by socialist Anne Hidalgo, decided to grant aid of 100,000 euros to SOS Méditerranée and to decorate the captains of a humanitarian ship from another NGO, prosecuted by justice in Italy for aiding illegal immigration. This decision had outraged the Italian extreme right, in particular the Minister of the Interior at the time, Matteo Salvini.
“Taking sides in an international conflict”
The Paris court recalls that“a local authority cannot (…) disregard France’s international commitments or, by awarding a grant, take sides in an international conflict or dispute of a political nature or interfere in the conduct of France’s foreign policy”. Or, “the leaders of the association have also publicly criticized and declared that they want to thwart by their action the policies defined and implemented by the European Union and the Member States in terms of immigration and asylum”note the magistrates.
“The Council of Paris heard to appropriate the criticisms of this association against these migratory policies”, they add, citing the content of the debates on this subject within it. Reached by Agence France-Presse on Friday afternoon, the Paris City Hall was unable to comment on the decision.
For its part, the NGO declared that it “worried deeply” of the court’s decision and said to study “very seriously the possibility of an appeal before the Council of State”. She recalled that “rescue at sea is not political, it is a humanitarian action, which is a moral and legal obligation, guaranteed by international conventions”.