Article published on February 5, 2023 at 4:59 p.m., updated on February 5, 2023 at 9:54 p.m. with EDF’s reaction
It was March 11, 2022, a fortnight after the outbreak of war in Ukraine: the government decided, by decree and via several decrees, to increase the volume of electricity to be sold in 2022 by EDF within the framework of regulated access to nuclear electricity (ARENH). Objective: to prevent customers of competing suppliers of the energy company from suffering a massive increase in their electricity bills.
A political choice that EDF asked the Council of State to cancel
ARENH, set up by the law of December 7, 2010, requires EDF to sell part of its nuclear production at a fixed rate to electricity suppliers who have requested it. A system that should make it possible, until 2025, to ensure freedom of choice of electricity supplier by allowing all consumers to benefit from the competitiveness of the French nuclear power plant.
A political choice that the energy company and organizations of employees and minority shareholders have asked the Council of State to cancel. After speaking out urgently in May 2022 via a summary procedure, the supreme administrative judge has just communicated on compliance with national law and European Union law. The Council of State therefore judges the government’s decision to “legal”.
Not “state aid” to customers of competing suppliers
“Taken in an exceptional context to contain the rise in prices, [le juge administratif suprême] considers that this measure is not excessive in order to achieve the objectives of free choice of supplier and price stability, that it does not disproportionately affect EDF’s freedom of enterprise and that it does not infringe the law of the European Union, is it written in thea court decision.
It is not a ” new device “, underlines the Council of State, which judges that the increase from 100 to 120 terawatt hours of the total volume of the maximum total volume of electricity meets the objectives of the law of 2010 on the ARENH. Nor does this exceptional increase constitute a ” state aid to customers of competing suppliers which should have been notified to the European Commission.
EDF’s reaction
In a statement sent to the press on February 5, EDF declares “to take note of the decision of the Council of State”.
“The compensation procedure initiated by EDF before the Administrative Court of Paris to obtain full compensation from the State for the damage suffered by EDF as a result of the device is continuing”, concludes the energy company.