PARIS (Reuters) – The European Commission disagrees with a French government plan to restructure EDF and sees a break-up of the nuclear utility into several units as the only solution, the state-owned firm’s chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy said in an interview.
The French government wants to separate EDF’s capital-intensive nuclear power arm from other parts of its business and needs EU clearance to make sure the new structure would not amount to state aid or crimp competition in a power market still largely dominated by the former monopoly operator.
Levy said there had been little progress in the government’s talks with the Commission since the end of autumn, but that discussions were continuing.
“The Commission’s answer does not satisfy us: for the Commission, the only option that can be considered is a break-up of EDF into several entities that compete with one another,” Levy told French magazine L’Express.
He said breaking up EDF would not benefit consumers, employment, French energy independence or the climate, and he questioned the outcome of 20 years of power industry liberalisation in Europe.
Under the government’s “Hercules” plan, EDF would remain one integrated company, but split into three entities: a regulated EDF “blue” for the nuclear fleet, EDF “azure” for hydropower – possibly fully renationalised – and EDF “green” for renewables, distribution and retail.
“Without Hercules, we risk becoming a second-tier utility. We will be overtaken by the oil majors who are now pushing into the electricity sector, and we have already been overtaken by several European utilities such as Spain’s Iberdrola and Italy’s Enel,” Levy said.
Levy also said the Commission does not see nuclear energy as a solution for global warming, despite the fact that it emits virtually no carbon dioxide.
“As it defines sustainable investment, the Commission today considers that nuclear is not in line with the planet’s needs, despite the fact that it emits virtually no CO2,” Levy said.
(Reporting by Benjamin Mallet; writing by Geert De Clercq; editing by Jonathan Oatis/Mark Heinrich)
