Data-center law in Monaco

Code de l'environnement (Monaco), art. L.141-1 a L.141-5, issu de la loi n. 1.456 du 12 decembre 2017 portant Code de l'environnement

Effective 2017-12-22 · Applies to both

Article L.141-1 lets the State, after an opinion from the Commission technique d'hygiene, de securite et de protection de l'environnement, subordinate to a prior environmental-incidence study any public or private construction, demolition, interior or exterior building work, earthworks or ground works, and the exercise, whether or not subject to a declaration or an administrative authorization, of any commercial, industrial, artisanal or professional activity; a ministerial order determines which projects and activities require the study.

Article L.141-2 makes the study a condition of admissibility for the activity declaration or the urbanism or activity authorization request. Article L.141-4 requires the study, prepared by a scientific method, to identify, describe and evaluate a project's direct and indirect, temporary and permanent effects on people, fauna and flora, soil, subsoil, water, air, climate and landscape, material assets and cultural and historical heritage, and the interactions between those elements.

Article L.141-5 sets the study's minimum content: a description of the existing situation and of the project or activity, the alternatives examined and the reasons for the choice made, the environmental elements likely to be significantly affected, the project's or activity's likely significant effects and the forecasting methods used, and the environmental measures envisaged.

A data centre's construction, and its operation as an industrial or commercial activity, both fall within this study duty where a ministerial order names the project or activity as one requiring it.

Source: Full text of law

Ordonnance-Loi n. 674 du 3 novembre 1959 concernant l'urbanisme, la construction et la voirie, art. 1 et 13

Effective 1959-11-09 · Applies to both

Article 1 bars any construction, demolition, or modification of a building's interior or exterior arrangements, and any earthworks or works of any kind on or in the ground of a public or private road, on any site whatsoever, without a prior authorization from the Government; an authorized project cannot be changed without a new authorization.

Article 3 has applications examined by a consultative committee against applicable laws and regulations, the aesthetic conditions of the proposed work, the general interest, and representativeness with respect to Monaco's history.

Article 13, as amended, punishes a beneficiary of the works, an architect, a contractor or another person responsible for executing works who does not comply with this ordinance-law, its implementing sovereign ordinances, or the conditions of an authorization, with the fine under Code penal article 26 chiffre 4, doubled on a repeat offence; the court orders demolition, compliance with prescribed conditions, or conformity with the authorization, under a daily penalty for delay, and obstructing the inspectors who record an infraction is punished with six days to one month's imprisonment and the chiffre 2 fine.

Source: Full text of law

Code de l'environnement (Monaco) art. L.411-1, L.413-1 a L.413-4, L.414-1 a L.414-9 et L.560-2, issu de la loi n. 1.456 du 12 decembre 2017 portant Code de l'environnement

Effective 2017-12-22 · Applies to both

Article L.411-1 subjects to this title any activity or product that can present a danger or an inconvenience for human health, environmental protection, public safety and salubrity, neighbourhood convenience, or the other interests it lists. Article L.414-1 covers factories, workshops, depots, and generally any installation operated or held by a natural or legal person, public or private, that can present such a danger or inconvenience.

Article L.414-2 has these installations listed in a nomenclature of installations subject to special surveillance, set by ministerial order after an opinion from the Commission technique d'hygiene, de securite et de protection de l'environnement.

Article L.414-3 subjects them to an authorization delivered by ministerial order, whose procedure, set by sovereign ordinance, requires an environmental-incidence study among the documents attached to the request; any transfer, extension, transformation of the installation, or change in its manufacturing processes requires a new authorization.

Article L.414-6 lets the Minister of State prescribe improvements where the installation's operation presents a danger or inconvenience, and Article L.414-7 requires periodic control visits.

Article L.560-2 punishes carrying on, or attempting to carry on, an activity governed by this Code without having made the declaration or obtained the authorization required by, among other articles, L.414-3 and L.414-5, with the Code penal article 26 chiffre 3 fine, whose maximum may be raised to five times that amount, or to double the value of works already carried out, or to double any profit realised; Article L.560-3 applies the identical penalty to continuing an activity after an authorization has been revoked or has lapsed.

Separately, Article L.220-2 requires public authorities and economic operators established in Monaco to prepare a greenhouse-gas emissions accounting, with a sovereign ordinance to determine which persons and organizations are subject to that duty and how the accounting is prepared and published; the text read this session does not itself confirm whether a data-centre operator has been designated.

A data centre's cooling plant, standby generators, or other equipment presenting a danger or inconvenience of the kind Article L.411-1 lists fall within the special-surveillance regime where a ministerial order names the installation in the nomenclature.

Source: Full text of law