The bill presented by the government was adopted on Wednesday after passing through both chambers and then through the joint committee.
The Senate has delivered its verdict. It voted at last reading, Wednesday, April 12, the text prepared by the government for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. After four hurdles passed without incident (one vote at first reading in the Senate, two in the Assembly and an agreement in joint committee), the executive’s copy was finally adopted by a majority (252 votes “for”, 27 “against”). Franceinfo: sport returns to the main points of the text.
Smart monitoring devices
Algorithmic video surveillance, the flagship measure of this piece of legislation, aims to aim of feeding algorithms with images from cameras and drones to more quickly identify “events” potentially dangerous, such as the start of a crowd movement or the abandonment of luggage. This information will then be reported to the security teams who scrutinize the gatherings behind their screens.
The executive and the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, indicated the need to secure the millions of visitors, and the text specifies that these devices “do not use any biometric identification system, do not process any biometric data and do not implement any facial recognition technique”. These images may be analyzed by private companies, then kept for a maximum of 12 months. The experiment, which could begin as soon as the promulgation and concern the next Rugby World Cup organized in France (from September 8 to October 28), should in theory end on March 31, 2025.
Personified surveys and body scanners
Other measures of the bill are already supposed to continue after the Olympic meeting, such as the increase in the field of “screenings”, the conduct of administrative inquiries into persons. Participants and accredited persons at competition sites and fan zones may be targeted, but not supporters.
The law also plans to make possible the use of body scanners at the entrance to stadiums and other sports, recreational or cultural venues welcoming more than 300 people. But this device can only be used with “(the) express consent” people. Already used in airports, this process will allow “to streamline controls and avoid bottlenecks”. Control by palpation will also remain maintained.
Increased penalties for violence in stadiums
In response to the fiasco of the last Champions League final at the Stade de France, the law provides for the creation of two offences: one repressing illicit entry, in a situation of recidivism, into a sports arena, the other relating to entering the competition area or field. In the event of a serious security breach, a mandatory stadium ban penalty would also be created. These measures are not limited to the holding of the Olympic Games, and may be maintained beyond the event, for example in the context of football matches.
Arrangements for health and reinforcement of anti-doping tests
The text plans to create a health center in the Olympic village in Saint-Denis and to strengthen the anti-doping arsenal of the authorities, with in particular tests intended to detect forms of genetic doping. These will be carried out, according to the text, “on pseudonymised samples and relate only to the relevant parts of the genome. The data analyzed cannot lead to revealing the identity of athletes or be used for the profiling of athletes or the selection of athletes based on a given genetic characteristic.” Finally, it provides for derogations from the rules for Sunday rest, which will run from June 15 to September 30, and support systems for the transport of spectators with disabilities.
