The Meeting of Businessmen of France (REF) of the Medef opens this Monday with a long-awaited speech by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne who must call on companies to be energy sober.
If the prime minister declared in an interview with Le Parisien published on Sunday that we are not going to “control the French at home” in terms of the requested energy savings, she adds that “as far as companies are concerned, there will be limitations of common sense”.
Two decrees are being examined by the State Council on extinguishing billboards at night and closing doors for air-conditioned businesses.
Facing businessmen, Mrs. Borne must make a call to companies and individuals to “general mobilization” in terms of energy sobriety. A first evaluation of the actions taken by companies to reduce energy consumption could take place at the end of September or in October, according to Matignon.
More restrictive measures could be triggered if the sobriety target of 10% energy savings is not achieved and Russia completely cuts off gas supplies, the same source added.
A more sober production model
“Companies obviously have a role to play,” Medef president Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux said in an interview with Figaro published on Monday.
“We will also have to rethink our production model in a more general way to make it more sober”, warns the president of Medef.
In her interview on Sunday, Elisabeth Borne also said that she “doesn’t close the door” on the idea of taxing the “super-profits” of companies, but above all encourages them to lower prices or give purchasing power to their employees. taking full advantage of, for example, the tripling of the tax-free bonuses (known as “Macron bonuses”) that they can pay to their employees.
Full employment and environmental planning
Elisabeth Borne also announced the release of a “green fund” endowed with 1,500 million euros intended for local authorities to “help them accelerate their ecological transition” and promised that the executive would amortize “the increases” in energy prices after the end of the shield rate in December, thanks to “specific provisions” for the “most fragile”.
Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Saturday that the increase in electricity and gas in 2023 would be “contained”. Accustomed to the event, his speech against Medef is scheduled for Tuesday.
At the head of Medef, Elisabeth Borne must also address ecological planning, including the development of carbon-free energies. The issue of full employment must also be addressed in the Prime Minister’s speech, eagerly awaited by businessmen.
Job prospects remain good and “we will certainly have a very good tourist season,” Alain Di Crescenzo, president of CCI France and a member of Medef’s executive committee, told AFP on Friday.
The Meeting of French Entrepreneurs begins at noon with a live video conference of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose country was invaded by Russia in late February.
The REF, which registered more than 8,000 registered last year in Paris, intends to break attendance records this year in its two days of debates at the Parisian Longchamp racecourse, says Patrick Martin, vice president of Medef.
Source: BFM TV
