Rise in electricity prices: The Mayor announces a solution “by the end of the week”
The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire announced Monday on LCI that a technical solution will be found “by the end of the week” to limit the increase in electricity prices to 4% in 2022, as the the government had promised.
Prime Minister Jean Castex pledged at the end of September to limit the increase in electricity prices to 4%, in order to spare the purchasing power of households.
The government has already lowered the tax on electricity consumption (CSPE), “to the lowest possible under European rules,” Bruno Le Maire said on LCI, but this only covers “up to 16 or 17% increase in the price of electricity ”. However, the government expects the increase to be in the order of 38 to 40%, hence the need for an additional solution to contain it.
“The negotiations have not yet been definitively concluded, the discussions are continuing. I think that by the end of the week, we will have the technical solution to protect both the French and businesses, ”he assured.
For the moment, the reduction in taxation on electricity represents a cost of 8 billion euros for the state, according to the minister. “It will cost what we ultimately decide to do to keep the Prime Minister’s promise,” he added.
Bruno Le Maire also assured that this promise was not valid only for the beginning of the year, but “for the whole of 2022”. “It is not a question of telling the French + We will try to hold out until the presidential elections and following that we will make a brutal increase +”, he declared.
Soaring electricity prices are fueled by many factors, such as supply tensions this winter and rising prices for CO2 allowances in carbon markets, where companies trade “rights to pollute” allocated in limited numbers by the authorities.
In the long term, France hopes for a reform of the European electricity market so that the prices reflect more faithfully the real prices in each country, whereas they are today set on the costs of gas and coal power plants, which are reaching new heights today.
