France’s lower house finance committee has voted to scrap a plan to tax the sale of EDF’s nuclear power on the wholesale market from 2026, the National Assembly of the parliament said on Friday.
The finance committee vote occurred late on Thursday, and the controversial plan is now due to be debated by the lower house during its examination of the 2025 draft budget bill next week. For the finance committee’s amendment to be adopted, however, it must be agreed during the plenary session of the budget debate.
It was not clear if the amendment would be adopted although the political make-up of the finance committee strongly resembles the make-up of the lower house, where no party holds a majority.
According to the draft budget bill, France would introduce the tax on state-owned utility EDF from 2026 to replace the Arenh, the current nuclear regulated tariff, following last year’s agreement between EDF and the government.
Last November, EDF reached an agreement with the previous government aimed at selling its nuclear output at an average of EUR 70/MWh (in 2022 prices) over the period 2026-2040. The deal included taxing the firm’s revenues above certain levels – EUR 78-80/MWh and EUR 110/MWh – to redistribute them to power consumers.
Strong opposition
However, the agreement had faced strong opposition from rival suppliers and was dismissed as “unworkable” by analysts, given that wholesale prices for 2026 had dropped below EUR 70/MWh.
Ahead of France’s general election, in June, the then economy minister Bruno Le Maire said the government would reopen talks with EDF over the deal due to a lack of interest from potential buyers.
Last week, industry minister Marc Ferracci said EDF must make an effort to propose “reasonable” prices to power-intensive industries.
The ecological transition and energy minister, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, said this week that she would meet EDF CEO Luc Remont “within days… to assess the implementation” of the November 2023 agreement.
Source: Montel
