By a municipal decree dated September 20, 2019, the mayor of Bègles prohibited the use of any plant protection product containing glyphosate and other chemical substances used to control organisms considered as pests on the entire municipal territory until further notice. The prefect of the Gironde has submitted this order to the administrative court of Bordeaux on the basis of article L. 2131-6 of the general code of local authorities. The Bègles municipality, in its defense, asked the court to refer to the Council of State the question of the conformity of the provisions of article L. 253-7 of the rural and maritime fishing code with article 7 of the Charter of the Environment.
For the Court, article L. 541-3 of the environmental code does indeed confer on the mayor the competence to take the necessary measures to ensure the elimination of waste whose abandonment, deposit or treatment present dangers, but the decree in question relates to the general conditions of use of such products, which cannot be assimilated to a waste deposit, which it is the sole responsibility of the State authorities to take. This prohibition could not therefore be legally based on the competence of the mayor in matters of special waste police. It could not be based either, for the same reasons, on articles L. 1311-1 and L. 1311-2 of the public health code and L. 2212-1 and L. 2212-2 of the general code of the territorial communities.