After deputies from Nupes, more than 60 socialist senators seized the Constitutional Council on Monday on articles 39, 40 and 41 of the purchasing power bill, which raise the regulated price of nuclear electricity.
They believe, in a press release, that these articles “infringe jointly the law of the European Union, the freedom of enterprise and the constitutional requirements in terms of validation law”.
Read alsoDeputies raise the regulated resale price of electricity produced by EDF
During the examination of the text, the deputies had approved, against the opinion of the government, the increase in the regulated price at which EDF is obliged to resell part of its nuclear electricity to its competitors, going from 42 euros currently to "at least 49.5 euros” per megawatt hour (MWh) from January 1, 2023. This obligation, known as Arenh (Regulated access to historical nuclear electricity), has been imposed on EDF since 2011 as part of the opening to competition of the electricity market.
The senators affirm that “the setting of this new price has in no way taken into account the economic conditions of electricity production”.
However, elected officials observe that "the productive capacity is less today" due to "the shutdown of certain reactors".
They also argue that "the European Commission has not approved in writing the increase in the ceiling and the tariff, as required by the law of the European Union".
Finally, they stress that “the obligation to sell at a regulated price”, when “EDF is facing historical economic difficulties”, “disproportionately affects its freedom of enterprise”.
Laws contrary to constitutional “values”
Friday, deputies of the left alliance Nupes had also filed appeals with the Constitutional Council against the two texts on purchasing power, denouncing measures contrary to “several principles” and “values” constitutional.
The first appeal brought by the Nupes intergroup pinpoints “the monetization of working time recovery days (RTT)” and the “abolition of the audiovisual fee”.
The second, on the initiative of the LFI and EELV groups alone, concerns the energy section of the purchasing power bill, considering that it undermines "the constitutional objective of protecting the environment, the common heritage of human beings, stemming from the 2004 Environmental Charter”, integrated since 2005 in the preamble to the Constitution.
The Constitutional Council has one month to rule on these appeals.