After deputies from Nupes, more than 60 socialist senators seized the Constitutional Council on Monday on articles 39, 40 and 41 of the purchasing power bill, which raise the regulated price of nuclear electricity.
They believe in a press release that these articles jointly undermine European Union law, freedom of enterprise and constitutional requirements in terms of validation law.
During the examination of the text, the deputies had approved, against the opinion of the government, the raising of the regulated price at which EDF is obliged to resell part of its nuclear electricity to its competitors, going from 42 euros currently to at least 49.5 euros per mgawatt-hour (MWh) from January 1, 2023.
An attack on EDF’s entrepreneurial freedom
This obligation, known as Arenh (regulated access to historical nuclear electricity), has been imposed on EDF since 2011 as part of the opening up of the electricity market to competition.
The senators point out that the setting of this new price did not take into account the economic conditions of electricity production, as required in 2019 by a previous decision of the Constitutional Council. However, the elected officials observe that the productive capacity is lower today due to the shutdown of certain reactors.
They also argue that the European Commission did not approve in writing the increase in the ceiling and the tariff, as required by European Union law.
Finally, they point out that the obligation to sell at a regulated tariff, when EDF is facing historic economic difficulties, is a disproportionate violation of its (EDF’s) entrepreneurial freedom.
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On Friday, deputies from the left alliance Nupes had also lodged appeals with the Constitutional Council against the two texts on purchasing power, denouncing measures contrary to several constitutional principles and values.
The first appeal brought by the Nupes intergroup pinpoints the monetization of days of recovery of working time (RTT) and the abolition of the audiovisual fee.
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The second, the initiative of the LFI and EELV groups alone, concerns the energy component of the purchasing power bill, considering that it undermines the constitutional value objective of environmental protection, the common heritage of human beings, resulting of the Environmental Charter of 2004, integrated since 2005 in the preamble of the Constitution.
The Constitutional Council has one month to rule on these appeals.
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