Fabrice Grosfilley received this morning Georges-Louis Bouchez, the president of the Reform Movement, as a guest of BEL RTL at 7:50 am. The Liberal first recalled the issues of this special energy consultation committee which takes place this Wednesday. Georges-Louis Bouchez echoed the words of French President Emmanuel Macron: “We’ve lived for the past 30 years with the idea that when you press a button, there’s light, and when you turn, there’s heating, and today, we realize that it’s not is not so natural. We must therefore restore security to the system if we want to lower prices. If not, the state can intervene until tomorrow, but prices can continue to rise skyward.“
Fabrice Grosfilley: What interests citizens is the price. Are we going to be able to lower the prices?
GLB: First of all, security of supply will have to be ensured. Then, it will be necessary to work on the prices. We offer a special crisis contribution paid by the producers, which allows an automatic discount on the invoice.
What is the difference with a tax on excess profits that everyone is talking regarding?
Because superprofits in economics don’t exist. The difference here is twofold: the government has an obligation to guarantee security of supply. Today, this is no longer the case. The purpose of the tax will be to guarantee this security. Secondly, we would make a tax in proportion to the energy mix. Today, the producer earns a lot of money because they produce electricity at €35/MWh thanks to nuclear power, but they sell it for €200/MWh since they have to sell it at the price of gas. with a special crisis contribution, we might tax this difference.
It’s a different word, but it’s the same thing…
Not at all, it’s another dynamic, with a basic difference. Today, the problem of the European market is that it has been said that the price of electricity would be fixed on that of gas, on a particular ecological will.
This contribution, it should go to whom? To the citizen? In the state ?
We must return the over-gains of the State to the citizen, but also to SMEs and the self-employed, who are the big forgotten. If we don’t help them, we will create a recession.
Will the consultation committee announce concrete solutions?
I will be clear: if there is nothing for SMEs and the self-employed, there will be no agreement. This is a fundamental economic issue for our country. The famous sobriety desired by the ECOLO, we see what it gives: it creates precariousness for the middle classes. It takes intelligent consumption, but not asking people who already have nothing to make an effort.
