One more step towards the renationalisation of EDF.

The deputies on Tuesday supported the financing by the State of 100% of EDF, an operation at 9.7 billion euros intended to get the group out of its financial and industrial rut.

The Assembly adopted these appropriations within the framework of the examination of the draft amending budget for 2022 by 209 votes against 156. In total, the Assembly voted an envelope of 12.7 billion euros for possible operations support for strategic French companies.

The government already owns 84% ​​of EDF and intends to launch a public tender offer (OPA) due to end at the end of October.

This return of the State to 100% in EDF was announced on July 6 by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.

The renationalisation should allow the group, which is very indebted, to borrow at a lower cost and give free rein to the State to reorganize it as it sees fit, without having to report to minority shareholders – EDF will not be no longer listed on the stock exchange.

It will be done via a public purchase offer (OPA) of the 16% of shares not held by the State, by the end of October normally.

Critical episode

This renationalisation comes at a time when the energy company is going through a critical episode: the State intends to make it the "armed arm" of the greening of its energy policy and the conquest of greater sovereignty in this area, while it finds itself in an extremely degraded financial situation.

Weighed down by a debt that could reach more than 60 billion euros at the end of 2022, the electrician has seen its financial situation further weighed down by the government's decision to make it sell more cheap electricity to its competitors to protect the utility bill. households.

At the same time, EDF is faced with the difficulties of maintaining an aging nuclear fleet: more than half of its 56 reactors are shut down, for maintenance or for corrosion problems that have recently appeared.

In the hemicycle, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire especially insisted on the “relaunch of the nuclear program in France”, with six new EPR reactors.

"Nuclear has suffered terribly from industrial abandonment in recent years," he added in a rowdy atmosphere.

“Private investors will not finance the six new reactors”, “programs with too slow profitability.

When it comes to the long term, it is the public investor who is the best investor,” he argued.

“All nuclear”

Ecologists and LFI voted against, castigating “all nuclear”.

Like others, they asked for a “great debate before the national representation on the energy future of France”.

The RN also opposed it.

General rapporteur Jean-René Cazeneuve (LREM) insisted on the future energy programming law “before the middle of next year” and Bruno Le Maire underlined his availability to debate.

Energy independence

These difficulties, combined with the consequences of the war in Ukraine, have brought the issue of energy sovereignty back to the fore, a fortiori with the European and French objective of rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change.

In order to guarantee energy independence while allowing France to exit from fossil fuels, President Emmanuel Macron has announced the launch of a program of six new-generation EPR nuclear reactors, or even 14, in addition to the only model currently in construction in the country, in Flamanville (Manche).

The renationalization of EDF is therefore only the prelude to a vast reorganization project, which makes the unions fear a resumption of construction of the Hercules project, suspended last year.

Supposed to provide resources by putting EDF's activities related to renewables on the stock exchange and by improving the remuneration of nuclear power, this project was seen by the trade unions as a dismantling.

A vision challenged by the executive, who has also repeatedly affirmed that this old project was "obsolete" and definitively buried.

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  • EDF

  • National Assembly

  • Nationalization

  • Economy