France has ambitious plans and wants to be the first country in the world to leave the fossil age behind. To this end, the government in Paris is nationalizing the electricity company EDF. However, he has problems with his ailing nuclear power plants, which are currently not getting any smaller.
France has initiated the procedure for the complete nationalization of the electricity company EDF. This was announced by the financial market authority AMF in the afternoon, as reported by the broadcaster Europe 1. The state has submitted a simplified public takeover bid, which is a first step towards delisting EDF. So far, EDF is already 84 percent state-owned. The measure, estimated at 9.7 billion euros, aims to buy up the remaining 16 percent. This step is intended to ensure the planned expansion of nuclear power in France.
President Emmanuel Macron announced in March that he wanted to fully nationalize EDF again. Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne emphasized in the summer that it was about ensuring French sovereignty in the face of the consequences of the war in Ukraine. The energy transition will succeed with the help of nuclear power. In order to be the first large country to completely do without fossil energy sources, France will expand renewable energy and nuclear power. At least six nuclear power plants are to be built.
However, EDF is currently in difficult waters. The aging power plant park is weakening. Half of the 56 nuclear power plants are currently off the grid for maintenance and repairs. This is affecting the company financially, and in the middle of the energy crisis, EDF is delivering significantly less electricity than planned. Paris is therefore building on electricity supplies from Germany in winter and wants to help out with gas in return.
It was also announced in the afternoon that a reactor at the Flamanville power plant on the English Channel, which had been shut down for maintenance, will not be able to go back on the grid in the coming days as planned, but only on November 26th. The broadcaster BFM TV reported this with reference to an EDF spokesman.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck had justified the continued operation of two German nuclear power plants with a view to the situation in France. "We are already in an area where the stress test says: It may be necessary to use nuclear power plants for network security," said the Green politician at the end of September. The situation in France is not developing well, there is already a lack of nuclear power from there.
