GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva’s popular floating bar, the Ile de la Rade, docked off the Jardin Anglais is illegal according to a decision announced this week by the Geneva Court of Justice.

The court said it was illegal to operate the drinking establishment in 2012 even after the canton authorized it to open: it ran counter to Geneva’s “efforts to reduce congestion along the harbor” and “to give ramblers back their space and views”.

The judges added that allowing the bar to operate every year for six months, which it had done since 2004, was an abuse of the original purpose, to function temporarily.

The bar, located on a 250m2 pontoon and run by the International Development Asssistance Fund (FAID), operated on a limited time schedule during summer 2012.

The bar’s website confirmed Tuesday 7 May that the Iles de la Rade will not open this summer. It says that the court decision demonstrates “a plan by local authorities to transform the area into a frozen harbour, in which nothing happens, lacking any new projects, or animation”.

The decision comes barely three months after the city threatened to close bars in some neighbourhoods at midnight, two hours earlier than the regular 02:00 closure, unless they come up with solutions to reduce noise levels.