Paris (AFP)

EDF's major reform project will not be able to come to fruition before the end of Emmanuel Macron's five-year term next year, due to a lack of agreement with the European Commission on this issue which aroused strong political and trade union opposition in France.

"At this stage, discussions have not succeeded" with Brussels and "it is not possible to have a bill in Parliament immediately," a government source told AFP.

The project will therefore not be able to be completed in time, before the start of the next presidential campaign, she admitted.

This complex reorganization project - first baptized "Hercules" then "Grand EDF" - was fought by the electrician unions who saw in it a risk of dismantling, as well as by a broad spectrum of the opposition (LFI, PCF , PS, LR).

At the beginning of July, united unions and parliamentarians reiterated their opposition to the "disintegration" of EDF.

In the eyes of the executive, the idea was to allow EDF, heavily indebted, to be able to invest in renewables while renovating its nuclear fleet.

In particular, the selling price of EDF's nuclear electricity to its competitors had to be raised.

An agreement with Brussels, guardian of competition in Europe, was however necessary.

A comprehensive agreement with the Commission would also have enabled an old dispute over hydroelectric dams to be settled.

But Paris and Brussels were opposed in particular on the degree of separation between the three different entities of EDF which would have been created with the reform.

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France wanted its champion to remain "integrated" while the competition services at the Commission wanted a more watertight separation.

The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire had described the EDF unit as "the absolute red line of the French government".

EDF CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy recently spoke of "difficult" discussions between Paris and Brussels.

"There has been progress but there is no global agreement" while "it has been more than two years that we work so that EDF is up to the challenges of energy transition", estimates t -on the French government.

However, the executive did not want a "truncated" or "hasty" reform.

"The file is put in the fridge," confirmed a source close to the file in Brussels.

"It is a political choice by France to push through the reform after the presidential election," a second source told AFP.

"We are still convinced of the need to make this reform," adds the side of the French government.

"We did not give up the work," we insist.

EDF, contacted by AFP, declined to comment immediately.

The group, majority owned by the French state, is due to publish its financial results Thursday morning.

© 2021 AFP