SENAT
Report n° 117 (2007-2008) by M. Roland COURTEAU, Senator (for the parliament office for the evaluation of scientific and technological choices) - Appendix to the minutes of the 7 December 2007 session
Disponible au format Acrobat (21 Moctets)
3. A change in French policy?
The Lisbon meeting of the ICG/NEAMTWS was marked by a positive change in French policy, with France officially announcing its interest to host a regional warning centre.
In addition, according to the information obtained by your rapporteur, the French Prime Minister has agreed in principle to the setting up of a national monitoring and warning centre for coastal floodings of marine origin 69 ( * ) , which would also be used for tsunami-risk management. The Department of the Sea, an institution under the direct authority of the Prime Minister, would be put in charge of defining and setting up this centre.
Your rapporteur fully supports this change in policy, even if it is still too early to judge the concrete measures to be taken by the French government. Indeed, the wait-and-see policy that France has pursued up until now testifies to its profound misunderstanding of the real stakes behind the setting up of a tsunami warning system.
* 69 Coastal submersions of marine origin include: storm surges, swells, rising sea levels and tsunamis.