The environment department of the Brest public prosecutor’s office (Finistère) will open an investigation into plastic microbead pollution. Countless of these small particles have been found in large quantities on beaches on the Atlantic coast.
“Complaints have been received in other prosecutor’s offices. We wait for them to come to us. But the principle of divestiture (for the benefit of the Brest public prosecutor’s office) is acquired, “said Camille Miansoni, prosecutor of Brest, on the sidelines of the solemn hearing at the start of the court on Friday. It is the Atlantic maritime gendarmerie which should be in charge of the investigation.
Used as a raw material by the plastics industry, these granules, which are used in the manufacture of most plastic objects, have been found in large quantities on beaches ranging from Finistère to Vendée since the end of November. The State and several local authorities have already filed a complaint against X. The Brittany region and the department of Finistère have also announced their intention to file a complaint.
A court that lacks resources
A regional hub for environmental damage, the Brest court has jurisdiction over the entire jurisdiction of the Rennes Court of Appeal (Ille-et-Vilaine), which includes the five Breton departments and Loire-Atlantique included , since October 2021. “We need the means to establish these new skills”, declared the prosecutor in his back-to-school speech, stressing that environmental litigation is taking an increasingly important place. “Our court is experiencing long-standing structural difficulties. Positions remain vacant for a very long time, without there being candidates to replace them. »
“It is cracking everywhere (…) This situation is not tenable”, he launched, specifying that the Brest court has 1.6 public prosecutors for 100,000 inhabitants within its jurisdiction, against 3 for 100,000 inhabitants on average in France and 11 per 100,000 inhabitants in Europe.