FR: Council of State approves A69 motorway project after last appeals rejected

The Council of State has upheld the ruling of the Toulouse Administrative Court of Appeal dated 30 December 2025 and dismissed the appeals lodged by several organisations against the environmental permits for the A69 motorway project. These authorisations are now final, it states in a decision handed down on 29 June 2026.

The ruling by the Toulouse Administrative Court of Appeal had in fact overturned the judgement of the Toulouse Administrative Court of 27 February 2025, which had found that the A69 project “did not meet the requirement of an overriding reason of major public interest (RIIPM), a necessary condition for granting an exemption from the protection of protected species”. Two environmental permits had subsequently been quashed.

Three appeals were then lodged with the Court of Cassation against this ruling by environmental associations France Nature Environnement, Notre Affaire à Tous and Friends of the Earth.

However, according to the Council of State, the Toulouse Administrative Court of Appeal (CAA) “did not err” in considering that the project does indeed meet an RIIPM…