"The obligation to present a compelling reason is appropriate and proportionate"

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Twenty-three companies from Guadeloupe and Martinique, on February 18, asked the judge of the Council of State to suspend the measures by which the Prime Minister prohibited all travel, except for compelling reasons, between the French West Indian islands and between them. and the metropolis.

They mention in particular that these measures “seriously and manifestly illegal interference with the freedom to come and go and the freedom of movement, the freedom of enterprise and the freedom of trade and industry; a serious and immediate attack on economic freedoms ”.

They add that "the total ban on travel to Guadeloupe and Martinique except for compelling reasons creates an unjustified breach of equality between French nationals and European nationals" and that  the prior checking of compelling reasons by the prefect, the prior authorization mechanism is more infringing on individual freedoms than the simple check which existed beforehand ”.

During the investigation of the case on March 12, the summary judge recalled that “the requirement to justify a compelling reason does not aim to prohibit all travel between metropolitan territory and the Antilles, but to defer or avoid travel with a view to minimizing the health risks for the population ”, specifically“ to prevent travel for tourist purposes ”but in no case“ to prevent a person from reaching his place of residence ”.

The judge also considers that "the reopening of the flow of tourists to the West Indies would accelerate the dissemination of the variants present today largely on the metropolitan territory, unlike last December and January".

In the end, for the judge in summary proceedings “the obligation to justify a compelling reason for any movement between the metropolitan territory and the Antilles, as well as between Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin and Saint Barthélemy, to the With the exception of travel between Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy, the main effect of which is to prohibit the arrival of tourists in these territories, present in the state of the instruction a necessary, adapted and proportionate character. The request of the West Indian companies was therefore rejected.

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