The controversial monument is deemed to have breached rules on secularism due to the large crucifix adorning it, the Telegraph reports.
Poland, John Paul II’s native country, has vowed to save it from “the dictates of political correctness” by having it shipped there.
The statue, located in the town of Ploërmel in Brittany, western France, depicts the late pope standing in prayer beneath an arch topped with the cross.
After a 10-year legal fight, France’s top administrative court has ruled the cross must now be removed because it violates a strict law ensuring the separation of Church and State.
While the Pope and the arch may remain in the town, Ploërmel now has six months to remove the striking cross.
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Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has offered the statue a new home to “save it from censorship”.
She said: “Our great Pole, a great European, is a symbol of a Christian, united Europe.”
She claimed “the dictates of political correctness” and “secularisation of the state” were promoting “values which are alien to our culture, which leads to terrorising Europeans in their everyday life”.
Meanwhile Louis Aliot, vice president of the Front National, claimed the ruling could lead to “the destruction of our Judeo-Christian society”.
However the Catholic Church pronounced the ruling “balanced” while the France’s secularism watchdog the decision had only enforced the existing law.
France has had strict rules on secularism since 1905, when the separation of Church and State was enshrined in law.
Public sector workers are not permitted to wear religious symbols including crucifixes or the Islamic hijab, for example, and there are no religious public schools.
There is also a ban on face-covering veils such as those worn by Muslim women – although lawmakers claim this does not deliberately target the religion.
As religious symbols cannot be displayed in public spaces, the mayor of Ploërmel is considering selling the public land on which the statue stands to a private investor, so that removing the cross will not be a problem.