2023-05-16 19:29:39
Merguez, firecrackers and smoke. Hundreds of railway workers gathered at the call of the unions, Tuesday, May 16 near the Ministry of Transport, to express their concern about the future of Fret SNCF and its approximately 5,000 employees.
At issue: a procedure opened in January by the European Commission on the past financing conditions of the freight activity. Brussels considers that there may have been a breach of the competition rules when, before its transformation into a subsidiary in 2020, Fret SNCF saw its cumulative debt of 5.4 billion euros erased. Or rather transferred to the parent company of the group. The European authorities are also interested in the injection, at that time, of 170 million euros by the public authorities.
A sword of Damocles below Fret SNCF
At the end of this procedure, the European Commission could consider that there has ultimately been no breach of the principle of competition. But otherwise, Fret SNCF would be forced to reimburse these astronomical sums. The very evocation of such a prospect makes the executives of the SNCF shudder. This would more or less kill this subsidiary specializing in the transport of goods by rail.
“The government is fully mobilized to provide all the answers to the Commission and defend rail freight”, assures the Ministry of Transport. But the executive is not ready to take the risk of such a defeat. He is also currently negotiating with Brussels to abandon the procedure, subject to a metamorphosis and a weight loss treatment which could be imposed on Fret SNCF.
Give up market share to competition?
“Brussels will study this proposal in the light of the principle of ‘economic discontinuity'”specifies a person close to the file. “It is a question of demonstrating, point by point (name, logo, scope of activity, etc.), that there is a clear separation between Fret SNCF and the future company. »
The slate would then be wiped clean. “But the new company would, so to speak, pay its debt by giving up part of its activity, by ceding market shares to the competition”, deplores Lionel Ledocq, federal secretary in charge of freight and ecological transformation within the UNSA-railway.
A « aberration »at the time of decarbonization
A « aberration »in the eyes of this union official. “A full freight train is the equivalent of 50 trucks! Europe cannot, for the purpose of decarbonization, ban the marketing of new thermal vehicles in 2035 and at the same time take a decision that will massively bring goods back to the roadspointe Lionel Ledocq. The state has a strong argument here.he believes.
To date, Fret SNCF accounts for half of French freight transport by rail. However, estimates Julien Troccaz, delegate at Sud-Rail, “none of the competitors is strong enough to take over whole sections of their business, especially in a period of driver shortages”. The two main rivals of Fret SNCF, Euro Cargo Rail, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, and Europorte France, a subsidiary of Getlink (operator of the Channel Tunnel), respectively control 12% and 6% of the market.
Double the rail share of freight transport by 2030
Initially scheduled for May 16, the meeting between the State, SNCF management and the unions has been postponed, probably for a week. Clément Beaune, Minister Delegate for Transport, will clarify his position “in the next few days”, ensures those around him.
This affair, with an uncertain outcome, could in any case thwart the government’s objective of doubling the share of rail freight in domestic freight transport (from 9% to 18%) between 2021 and 2030. A possible blow for a sector traditionally in deficit and which recently suffered a lot from the movement against the pension reform, the non-striking drivers having been mobilized in priority for the transport of passengers.
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