In a mission letter, the Prime Minister asks Luc Rémont in particular to “control the deadlines and budgets of the nuclear projects in progress”.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne asks the new CEO of EDF Luc Rémont to restore the nuclear apparatus to working order, to better control the projects in progress and to straighten out its finances, in a mission letter summarized by Matignon on Saturday January 7.
In her letter of December 9, reported by Les Échos this Friday, the head of government sets three priorities for Luc Rémont, asking him first of all to restore EDF production in France “at a level consistent with the capacities of its industrial tool and the best international comparables», while 14 out of 56 nuclear reactors are still shut down. Elisabeth Borne asks the national electrician, in the process of being 100% renationalized, to “control the deadlines and budgets of ongoing nuclear projects».
“Rightening the financial trajectory of the company”
His letter was written a few days before EDF announced a new delay of six months and an additional cost of 500 million euros for the new generation EPR reactor in Flamanville (Manche) whose commissioning is now scheduled for here in mid-2024. At the same time, Luc Rémont must “straighten the company’s financial trajectory“, very indebted, but also answer”consumer expectations in the context of rising energy prices».
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«The objectives set for the company by the government are part of a particular context» car EDF «must face major operational difficulties with the French nuclear fleet and respond to the government’s desire to relaunch one of the most ambitious nuclear power policies in the world“, explained Matignon to AFP. “At the same time, the company must meet the challenges of ecological planning“, we added in the entourage of Elisabeth Borne.
Luc Rémont has six months to respond: he will have to propose “a new strategic, operational and financial roadmap for EDF’s future, in the first half of 2023“. Elisabeth Borne also mentions in her letter a “targeted developmentof EDF for export.
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