Electricité : un abandon des poursuites contre le France ?[en] 

The EU adopted new guidelines for the gas and electricity markets in June 2003. These texts included the opening of both gas and electricity markets for industry by July 2004 and for all consumers by July 2007. From that date, companies and private consumers were supposed to be free to choose their energy supplier in a competitive market (see EurActiv LinksDossiers on electricity and gas market liberalisation).

However, surveys conducted by the European Commission after liberalisation revealed serious shortcomings in the French market, leading the EU executive to launch several investigations against France and its state-owned former monopoly EDF (EurActiv 12/03/09).

The degree of competition in the French electricity market is currently low. Indeed, EDF controls a large set of nuclear power plants and Paris maintains regulated tariffs to avoid higher prices for industry. Energy legislation dating from 7 December 2006 established a system for maintaining regulated prices on sites that already enjoyed these tariffs and introduced a transitory regulated tariff for market adjustment (called Tartam) (EurActiv France 18/06/08 ).

France, Germany and six other member states led resistance to the EU directive (EurActiv 01/02/08). Energy ministers finally clinched a deal in October 2008, agreeing that energy producers from countries which are not fully open to competition should not be allowed to buy up the transmission businesses of energy companies in European countries where full unbundling has been introduced (EurActiv 13/10/08).

The measure was directed at France, which had opposed unbundling while EDF, the state-owned energy firm, went on a shopping spree across Europe. In order to meet the European Commission's requirements, the French government finally asked a commission headed by Paul Champsaur to solve the issue of regulated tariffs. The report was released on 24 April 2009 (EurActiv France 28/04/09 ). 

The French government issued a press release on 15 September setting out the main objectives for reform of its electricity market.

The French text sets out three principles:

• To preserve regulated electricity tariffs for households and small companies;
• to ensure funding for existing generation capacity and encourage new investment in accordance with the 'Grenelle de l'environnement' round table, and;
• to promote competition via regulations allowing all electricity suppliers in France to tap into EDF's "historic" nuclear power capacity at market conditions.

The reforms will have to be voted upon in the French parliament by July 2010.

The same day, EU commissioners Andris Piebalgs (energy) and Neelie Kroes (competition) welcomed  the French developments.

The two commissioners said a law applying the French government's commitments would postively impact upon the Commission's ongoing antitrust investigations.

They particularly appreciated a commitment to scrap regulated tariffs for large and medium-sized companies after a limited transition period.

The main idea of the reform is "to establish by 2010 a transitional system of regulation," said Pierre Gadonneix, president of EDF, during a hearing before the French parliament's committee on economic affairs on 16 September.

"Thus, all EDF's competitors would purchase from EDF at market prices," he said.

But the price at which competitors will buy nuclear energy produced by EDF has not yet been determined.

"We must take into account the full cost in the long term," said Gadonneix, adding that the cost of electricity should also include "maintenance and investment costs for nuclear plants". The committee headed by Paul Champsaur estimated that these vary between €40 and €45 per megawatt hour. But according to French economic newspaper Les Echos, the government will propose a "significantly lower" price.

During his hearing, Gadonneix called for the establishment of a body outside EDF to assess the cost of nuclear power. 

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said: "If the commitments made by the French government to the Commission are implemented, this large-scale reform has the potential to appreciably enhance competition on the French electricity market to the benefit of consumers. It will exert pressure on prices and foster innovation and investment."

EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said: "I welcome the initiative of the French government aiming to reform the electricity market. In order to reach our objectives of ensuring a sustainable production of electricity and increased security of supply, it is indeed necessary to have a competitive electricity market."