Energy unions plan to legally challenge the government's decision to use EDF to contain rising electricity prices, they announced on Thursday, the day after a massive strike against the measure.
Read alsoElectricity prices: massive strike at EDF against government measures
“In support of the mobilization of personnel against the deregulation and spoliation of EDF, the trade union federations are launching legal actions”,
announce the CGT, the CFE-CGC, the CFDT and FO in a joint press release.
In order to contain, as it had promised, the rise in regulated electricity tariffs to 4% in 2022, the government has asked EDF to increase by 20% the annual quota of electricity sold at a reduced price to its competitors, increasing to 120 TWh (compared to 100 TWh) the Arenh ceiling (regulated access to historical nuclear electricity), the mechanism that forces EDF to sell its electricity to its low-cost competitors.
This will cost the group around 8 billion euros.
The intersyndicale announced Thursday its intention to file
"an appeal against the texts increasing the Arenh ceiling by an additional 20 TWh".
A union source interviewed by AFP indicated that he did not know at this stage what form these texts would take and therefore which court would be seized to try to counter this decision.
The government in a position of strength
But the 2019 Climate Energy Law gives the government the power to increase the Arenh by decree up to 150 TWh.
“The temporality of the government's informal announcement is already penalizing the company and its employees, from the maintenance of the existing fleet to the future investments essential to meet the Nation's electricity needs, its security of energy supply and its climate objectives taken. before the United Nations”
, considers the inter-union in its press release.
It thus refers to the cost which will increase the debt of the energy company, already struggling with new delays in the construction of the EPR in Flamanville (Manche), and with a problem of corrosion on security systems in several power plants. .
The intersyndicale also announced its intention to challenge before the Council of State the deliberation of the Energy Regulation Commission (CRE), which had established that, without the measures taken by the State, the regulated tariff of the electricity would have increased by 44.5% for individuals on 1 February.
Read alsoMore than a third of employees on strike, EDF unites against the government
“This proposal to increase CRE is above all political and an alignment with the demands of alternative suppliers in order to save pseudo-competition and nothing else”
, considers the intersyndicale.