French Energy industry calls for ‘stability’ amidst political upheaval

French energy industry representatives called on newly elected members of the national parliament in a joint letter on Monday (22 July) to ensure that the country’s political instability does not hold back French energy policy.    

“Visibility and stability” are two keywords of the text signed by the seven main federations and associations in the French energy sector.

France has faced political instability since President Emmanuel Macron’s camp’s poor performance in the June European elections and snap national assembly elections three weeks later. The newly elected national assembly is even less in favour of Macron than before, meaning that Macron will struggle to form a government.

As a result, the energy and climate framework texts – most notably the energy and climate planning law (LPEC) and the multiannual energy plan (PPE) – could not be adopted. These plans set out sectoral targets, and have five- and ten-year horizons respectively.

The letter signatories first call for the adoption and implementation of this framework. “Stop-and-go measures are detrimental to our long-term industries,” they wrote.

With the National Energy-Climate Plan (NECP) submitted to the European Commission on 10 July, there is now an “official reference framework up to 2030, but we’re working a bit backwards”, Jules Nyssen, president of the SER renewables association and a signatory of the letter, told Euractiv.

The EU-required NECP is a higher-level summary of France’s energy and climate objectives, which summarises targets from the LPEC and PPE, but also from France’s low carbon strategy (SNBC) and its climate change adaptation plan (PNACC).

The NECP provides limited clarity, however, as it explicitly states that several of the texts upon which is based will be updated shortly.

The government has managed to pass some decrees, which fall short of laws, during this period of instability, such as reglementary texts confirming the deployment of the long-awaited new renewable capacity. The French electricity union, who also signed the letter, acknowledged this but told Euractiv that they were “forced to fight for these decrees”.

Relying on the EU

The energy sector’s representatives are also calling on France to implement recent EU rule changes, to support the competitiveness of French industry and to improve consumers’ and enterprises’ purchasing power, after two years of high energy prices.

For example, French industry is waiting for the reform of the European electricity market adopted in May to be transposed into French law. The reform aims to protect consumers and producers more effectively from fluctuations in electricity prices.

To ensure ‘competitiveness’, the signatories want France to use the ‘Net-Zero Industry Act’, “for developing strategic equipment for the industrial sector”, French electricity industry association (UFE) explained to Euractiv. UFE was one of the letter’s signatories.

Moreover, in her speech before the European Parliament, the re-elected president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, promised a new “Clean Industry Pact’ within the new Commission’s first 100 days, which would “help bring down energy bills” that are “hampering our competitiveness”.

In the meantime, a number of strategic and clean technology plants are closing or relocating, while producers are losing value on the stock market, such as German multinational BayWa.

A French electricity sector stakeholder told Euractiv that “a problem of industrial confidence is setting in” as illustrated by last week’s decision of the Czech authorities to choose a South Korean manufacturer for its future nuclear reactors rather than France’s EDF.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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