In the series “We must save the EDF soldier”, the “Hercules” season ends without fanfare. This major reform project, supported for nearly two years by the group’s management, is now on the way to being discreetly buried by the government, which is facing an untenable schedule and strong union pressure.
A new exchange, Monday, May 10, between the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, and the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, illustrated the differences in approach between France and Brussels. Not only are the negotiations far from over, but Paris has hardened its position to preserve the interests of EDF, it is now explained within the government.
Originally, the group management and the executive built a project called “Hercules” which consists of organizing the group into three entities. A “Blue EDF”, 100% public, would bring together nuclear activities, while a “Green EDF”, whose capital would be open to the private sector, would bring together the sale of electricity, renewable energies and the distributor Enedis (ex-ERDF ). A third structure, “EDF Azur”, with special public status, would include hydroelectric dams – which are the subject of more than ten years of litigation with the European Commission. The unions and the opposition have been mobilized for several months against what they qualify as “Dismantling” group and claim that this project opens the door to a “Privatization” part of the electrician’s activities.
Project with blurred outlines
The reason for this great upheaval? The difficult economic situation of EDF, a company weighed down with a debt of 42 billion euros and which must make considerable investments to extend its nuclear reactors and invest in renewable energies. Above all, EDF considers that it has been harmed by the device, which requires it to sell part of its nuclear electricity production to its competitors at a fixed price.
It was the desire to put an end to this complex mechanism for regulated access to historic nuclear electricity (Arenh) that prompted France to open negotiations with Brussels: in exchange for a more profitable system for EDF, the group would be reorganized in a way more in line with the European vision of competition. But these negotiations have been slipping for several months, even if the government has shown itself, on several occasions, to be optimistic on the subject.
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