A government amendment, tabled on April 8, proposes limiting the requirement for these ZFEs, and therefore the effective use of the sticker, to the metropolitan areas of Paris and Lyon. As a result, in around fifty urban areas with more than 150,000 inhabitants, the legal requirement could disappear, leaving local authorities with the choice of whether or not to maintain their traffic restrictions.
Several right-wing and far-right MPs had initially voted in committee for the outright abolition of ZFEs for most large cities, denouncing an "unfair" measure for artisans and low-income families, who are forced to buy newer vehicles to avoid fines. The government, caught off guard, preferred to reframe the system rather than repeal it completely: only the capital and the Lyon metropolitan area, regularly condemned by Brussels for their nitrogen dioxide peaks, would remain obliged to apply a ZFE-mobility.
The Crit’Air sticker still there
In concrete terms, the Crit’Air sticker, which classifies vehicles from 0 (clean) to 5 (very polluting), is not disappearing. It remains the legal tool for prioritizing traffic restrictions. In Paris, Crit’Air 4.5 and unclassified vehicles will continue to be banned in 2025 throughout the entire intramural perimeter; in Lyon, the same ban will apply to Crit’Air 5 and unclassified vehicles throughout the entire metropolitan area. In the other cities concerned, Rouen, Toulouse, Grenoble, Nice, etc., the ball now falls to local elected officials: they will be able to maintain their ZFE, relax it, or eliminate it without any legal framework.
Mayors of medium-sized municipalities are pleased with a "liberation" from a constraint deemed costly and socially discriminatory. Conversely, several environmental NGOs, including Respire and the Association for Air Quality, believe that the government's axe risks weakening the fight against pollution, which is responsible for tens of thousands of premature deaths each year in France. "Without an obligation, many cities will abandon their ZFE, and our carbon neutrality objectives will be compromised," warns an expert from the Ecological Transition Agency.
On the legislative level, the amended text still needs to go through a public session, after which the back-and-forth between the Assembly and the Senate will begin. In the meantime, many local authorities are rushing to prepare several scenarios: strict maintenance, targeted relaxation (bypass routes, timetables, etc.) or outright elimination of their ZFE.
Halfway between health requirements and economic constraints, the reform in the making illustrates the difficulty of reconciling ecological transition and social justice. While Paris and Lyon will remain under close European surveillance, the fate of other metropolises will soon depend on local political choices and, perhaps, on pressure from citizens who are increasingly sensitive to the quality of the air they breathe.
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