Algiers announced, Thursday, August 7, the “End of the provision, as a graceful basis, of real estate belonging to the Algerian State for the benefit of the French Embassy in Algeria”. A verbal note sent by Algiers to Paris also announces the renegotiation of leases concluded on advantageous conditions, in order to review the amounts and methods.
France rents 61 goods in Algeria
According to Algeria Press Service (APS), France has long benefited from advantageous rental conditions on at least 61 goods in Algeria, including nearly 18 hectares for the French Embassy and 4 hectares for the ambassador’s residence, called “olive trees”. The latter would have long been rented for a symbolic amount, which remained unchanged between 1962 and August 2023.
These advantages, inherited from the first years following independence, have no equivalent in France for the Algerian representation, specifies Algiers. “Consequently, the Algerian action thus decided aims to introduce balance and reciprocity in the global Algerian-French relationship”signals the ministry.
Algiers also announced the denunciation of the bilateral agreement of 2013 providing short stay visa the holders of diplomatic and service passports. This measure, now final, obliges the French concerned to request a visa to enter Algeria.
A savory invoice for Paris
Difficult, for the time being, to encrypt precisely the financial impact as long as new rents are not fixed. But a projection from comparable surfaces suggests several million euros per year just for the embassy and its residence if the prices on the market are applied.
By adding the French institutes, the consulates and their dependencies, the sum could quickly increase. Paris will then have to decide if it absorbs the load in the budget of the Quai d’Orsay, reduces its real estate stock in Algeria, or negotiates compensation with Algiers. What is certain is that gratuity is no longer part of certainties.
