A first important meeting of the return of the executive. Emmanuel Macron meets this Friday morning at a Defense Council to take stock of the supply of gas and electricity and examine the scenarios to avoid shortages and save money.
Scheduled for 10:00 a.m. at the Elysee, this council brings together “the competent ministers” in this file, such as Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, Public Accounts Minister Gabriel Attal and the ministers responsible for Transition. energy Christophe Béchu and Agnès Pannier-Runacher, as well as experts.
This CDSN “intends to take stock of the situation of our gas and electricity supply to prepare us for all the scenarios of this fall and winter,” explained the presidency. It will also focus on “European energy solidarity”.
What energy for this winter?
Russia’s gas flows have dried up and Europeans are bracing for a possible full shutdown, in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Moscow since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine. The giant Gazprom thus announced this week the end of its deliveries to Engie.
The situation is also tense on the electricity side, due to the unavailability of part of the nuclear park, in particular due to corrosion problems.
Elisabeth Borne thus put pressure on EDF by asking it on Thursday to maintain its reactor maintenance program to prevent France from having to restart a coal-fired power plant.
“We have been preparing for months to avoid cuts. If we lower our gas consumption by 10% there will be no restrictions. It is achievable,” added the prime minister on France Inter.
“If we don’t make these savings, if the winter is cold, there may be restrictions but they won’t affect households,” he added, specifying that he will present the forecast scenarios “at the end of September-beginning of October.” .
For her part, Emmanuelle Wargon, president of the Energy Regulatory Commission, declared herself “confident” on Thursday in the “possibility of spending the winter without Russian gas”, which only represents 9% of the supply in France. She specified in LCI that “the 100% filling of our gas stocks” will be effective “before November 1, the date set by the government.”
It is not a “secret compound”
Initially reserved for defense and security issues, the defense councils have been used on numerous occasions by Emmanuel Macron to manage the Covid-19 crisis, provoking criticism from the political opposition about the solitary exercise of power.
“An energy defense council, for me that is the secret,” Greens chief Julien Bayou criticized on Tuesday.
“Do not see it as a secret site, it is really a collegiate and collective work,” said the government spokesman, Olivier Véran.
Source: BFM TV
