A thousand opponents marched this Saturday, October 11, against this project, described as an “environmental disaster.” The Seine-North Europe canal, whose infrastructure works began in 2022, is a gigantic project aimed at boosting river freight transport between the Paris basin and the main ports of the North Sea from the 2030s.
Its promoters tout an “ecological solution” that would considerably reduce the use of road transport, while its opponents consider it a ruinous, useless and “destructive” project for natural and agricultural spaces. Below are some key figures.
107 kilometers
The canal planned between Compiègne (Oise) and Aubencheul-au-Bac (North) must be 107 kilometers long and 54 meters wide: enough to allow the circulation of large barges up to 185 meters long, capable of transporting up to 4,400 tons of goods each, the equivalent of 220 trucks.
This would allow the creation of a true river highway between the Seine and the Scheldt, which would lead to the large freight port of Antwerp in Belgium, in turn linked to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
However, for its opponents, grouped in the “Méga Canal Non Merci” collective, pumping the Oise to supply the canal risks altering the regime of this river and its groundwater.
This is denied by its project owner, the Société du Canal Seine-Nord Europe (SCSNE), as is the government: the canal “will not take any samples of groundwater” and “will be the most efficient in terms of water in the European network,” the Ministry of Regional Planning assured in a written response in July to a question from LFI deputy Clémence Guette.
The project will also condemn numerous agricultural and natural areas where several hundred protected species live, its detractors emphasize, but its promoters have planned 1,200 hectares of plantations and environmental developments as compensation.
50 million tons
This is the number of tons of CO2 emissions that the canal would avoid in 40 years, according to SCNSE estimates. Or about an eighth of France’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2023.
This forecast is based on a scenario of 17 million tonnes of goods per year crossing the canal until 2035, which would be equivalent to 2.3 million fewer heavy vehicles on a European scale on the Sena-Escaut link, according to the SCNSE.
These estimates are too optimistic, say opponents, who also rely on a 2013 public report that points to the risk of direct competition between the canal and rail transport, which is also a low-carbon mode of transport.
These estimates are “very questionable”, also judges Emilie Lorant-Plantier, professor of geography and author of a thesis on the Seine-Northern Europe canal, recalling that the river “is not a means of terminal transport”, since “the road, always” is necessary to deliver goods to their final destination.
5.1 billion euros
This is the current estimated cost of canal construction. 2.2 billion euros must come in equal parts from the State and local entities (regions and departments) and 2.1 billion euros from European funds.
This budget, which is already much higher than the initial estimates, included in a financing agreement signed in 2019, should be revised significantly upwards.
In a report published at the end of 2024, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council of Hauts-France (Ceser) estimated that “the final cost of the project could range between 7 and 8 billion euros”, due in particular to inflation.
Therefore, the loan of 800 million euros currently planned to complete the works budget could increase. The current plan to repay this loan is to create a new national tax that encourages the transfer of goods from road to river.
Source: BFM TV
