Parliament definitively adopted on Wednesday April 3 a text proposed by the Socialists regarding EDF, combining anti-dismemberment provisions and the extension of regulated electricity prices to small businesses and municipalities. Having become a symbol of opposition, this initiative finally received the support of the executive after an agreement. MP Philippe Brun’s bill aimed at “protecting EDF from dismemberment” received final approval from the Senate in the evening, after three examinations in each of the two Chambers of Parliament.
This text, profoundly revised throughout its course, has long been the symbol of the absence of an absolute majority in the presidential camp: an alliance of oppositions from the right and the left thus allowed these successive adoptions against the advice of the government. The executive finally gave its support to the text in February after having negotiated an agreement with the opposition to withdraw two tense measures: the obligation for EDF to put in place a share of employee shareholding as well as the holding by EDF of 100 % of the capital of Enedis, the distribution network manager.
In addition to the legal protection of 100% ownership of EDF by the State, essentially symbolic because it is already effective, the socialist bill provides for the extension, to February 1, 2025, of regulated electricity sale prices ( TRVE) to very small businesses, artisans or even small farmers. “We assure our bakers, our farmers, our artisans, our traders and our small towns the ability to see things coming,” Philippe Brun argued during the last examination in the National Assembly.
“Useful for the future”, but “not working” currently
The Minister for Industry and Energy, Roland Lescure, specified that this expansion of the TRVE would concern 10,000 municipalities and one million additional VSEs. “Proposing today a protection system in the event that, unfortunately, prices increase, is a protective signal for our craftsmen, traders, farmers and communities,” he underlined.
In the Senate, dominated by an alliance of the right and the center, the text is also received with interest, particularly in the context of the agricultural crisis. It “is especially useful for the future,” explained rapporteur Christine Lavarde, of the Les Républicains group. “But we must have the courage to say that today, this system is absolutely not effective and interesting,” she added, noting that market offers were currently more competitive than TRVE. The senatorial right also gave its agreement due to the establishment of a “ten-year contract” updated every three years between EDF and the State to determine in particular the investment objectives, price control or decarbonization of the giant Energy.
These various measures, far from the initial ambition of this anti-dismemberment text of EDF, posed the threat of a referral to the Constitutional Council by the government, with a risk of censorship. The agreement reached between government and opposition should, however, make it possible to exclude this hypothesis.