The registration scheme: a widely supported simplification measure under close scrutiny

It was a small revolution in the world of logistics. The date was June 11, 2009. An ordinance created the registration scheme. Initially known as the “simplified authorization scheme,” this procedure would enable thousands of projects to come to fruition “in just five to seven months, compared with 12 to 18 months previously,” says Paulo Ferreira, CEO of Virtuo Industrial Property and Vice President of Afilog, who helped draft the new scheme. Today, more than 20,000 sites are covered. And this number rises every year.

To understand the importance of this new procedure for logistics real estate, it is necessary to go back a little further—several centuries, in fact. The classified installations regime is one of the oldest areas of French environmental law, dating back to the 19th century. In 1794, the explosion at the Grenelle powder factory, in the immediate vicinity of Paris, caused the deaths of around 1,000 people. In response, in 1806, the Police Prefecture issued a decree requiring operators of dangerous or unsanitary facilities to declare their activity. This requirement became nationwide in 1810. In 1917, a new law on dangerous, unsanitary, or nuisance-causing establishments strengthened the framework by taking pollution into account. Toward the end of the 1960s, oversight of classified establishments, previously handled by the labor inspectorate, was entrusted to the mining service and then transferred to the Ministry of the Environment when it was created in 1971.

The 1976 law on classified installations for environmental protection became the legal foundation for industrial environmental regulation in France, and a single entity is responsible for enforcing this legislation: the classified installations inspectorate, which monitors all activities liable to affect people and/or the environment.

Following the tragic explosion at the AZF plant in Toulouse in 2001, a new law was passed in 2003 (No. 2003-699) to strengthen the prevention of technological and natural risks. It also imposed major constraints on logistics real estate project developers, particularly through the ministerial order of August 2002, repealed in 2016, concerning in particular covered warehouses.

Stakeholders in the logistics real estate sector therefore mobilized within Afilog to bring about the registration scheme in 2009, with the aim of simplifying administrative procedures, shortening review times, standardizing technical requirements applicable to certain installations, and making operators more accountable.

Since its introduction, an increasing number of ICPE categories—and therefore industrial installations—have come under this expanding scheme. “The rules are established nationally through ministerial orders, ensuring a consistent understanding among all inspectors,” explains Louis Gaget, head of the risk prevention department at Dreal Nouvelle-Aquitaine. “However, if the activity ultimately proves more complex, if the registration application is deemed to have a significant impact (because of the environmental sensitivity of the area, cumulative impacts with other projects, or the need for substantial adjustments to the applicable general requirements), and standardized general rules are no longer appropriate, the prefect may decide, after a case-by-case review, that the installation falls under the authorization scheme.” This so-called “safeguard” clause may create uncertainty for project developers and sometimes give them the impression that the level of stringency will vary depending on where they plan to locate. “This may be explained by the specific characteristics of the location, where the impact level of the same activity may not be acceptable in the same way, given the environment on which it exerts pressure,” Louis Gaget qualifies.

In 2025, 22,530 ICPE sites in France were recorded under the registration scheme (compared with 22,920 in 2024), according to the annual activity report published by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion. This figure, which has been rising for 15 years, is good news for logistics real estate stakeholders as well as for the government departments responsible for reviewing applications, since projects subject to the registration scheme are applications that will not be submitted under the authorization scheme, which is far more complex to prepare and review (18,963 in 2024). “While certain review stages remain unavoidable, the registration scheme requires less recourse to bodies outside government departments than the authorization scheme does,” explains Louis Gaget. “Applications can therefore be processed more quickly.” One might think that all applications, whatever scheme they fall under, would consequently benefit from shorter timelines… “But the authorization procedure was reformed in 2024, and the time needed to become familiar with it means it has not yet produced all of its effects; review times may therefore, for the time being, be longer,” he adds.

Although this scheme formed part of a “simplification drive,” project developers are being asked to provide more and more information. “For example, around a decade ago an impact assessment was just under 100 pages long. Today, it is close to 400 pages, or even 600 if the appendices are included!” says Alexia Montchaud, environmental project manager at Bureau Veritas, which supports project developers in preparing their applications, particularly where ICPE sites are concerned.

Even under the registration scheme, professionals have experienced longer timelines since 2010. “On average, statutory review periods are met when applications are deemed complete,” notes Estelle Hassen, environment director at AConstruct and Afilog’s risk prevention lead. “However, the time taken to establish completeness, which is not regulated, tends to be increasing. This is not necessarily because more requests for additional information are being made, but because the initial review of applications and their interaction with increasingly interconnected regulations (planning, environmental assessment, etc.) require more in-depth analysis and greater vigilance from all stakeholders, sometimes resulting in more substantial additional exchanges.” Some applications, although they remain under the registration scheme, may therefore take twice as long as initially expected. “The registration scheme remains a good thing for sector stakeholders and must be maintained,” says Paulo Ferreira. “But it does not resolve every issue, especially with regard to timelines. We must remain vigilant.”

For Alexia Montchaud, it is also important to engage in self-criticism and seek avenues for improvement among project developers and the consulting firms that support them. “To keep these timelines reasonable, discussions with the relevant departments must take place before applications are filed, in order to anticipate as effectively as possible any potential sticking points or a shift to the authorization scheme,” she suggests. “Consultants must also be well trained to support project developers in their procedures, and to demonstrate sound judgment when requests for additional information are justified.”