Elected officials believe that the provisions voted by Parliament last week on this subject “undermines in a joint manner in European Union law, freedom of entrepreneurship and constitutional requirements in matters of validation law” .
Le Monde with AFP
This is a third recourse to the legislative package on purchasing power which has just been registered by the Council of State. After two referrals already carried out by the deputies of the NUPS Friday August 5, more than sixty socialist senators seized the Constitutional Council on Monday, August 8.
Their referral concerns articles 39, 40 and 41 of the bill purchasing power, which note the regulated price of nuclear electricity. In a press release, elected officials explain that these articles “undermine in a joint manner with European Union law, freedom of entrepreneurship and constitutional requirements in matters of validation law”.
During the examination of the text, the deputies had approved, against the opinion of the government, the increase in the regulated price to which EDF is forced to resell a share of its electricity to its competitors, going from 42 euros currently to ” at least 49.50 euros “by megawatt hour (MWh) from 1
é> January 2023.
This obligation, known as Arenh (regulated access to historic nuclear electricity), has been imposed on EDF since 2011 as part of the opening to competition from the electricity market.
Two other referrals made by NUPS deputies
Senators point out that “the fixing of this new price has not taken into account the economic conditions of electricity production”, as required in 2019 a previous decision of the Constitutional Council. However, elected officials observe that “productive capacity is less today” due to “the stop of certain reactors”.
They also argue that “the European Commission has in no way approved the increase in the ceiling and the price, as required, however, the law of the European Union”.
Finally, they emphasize that “the obligation to sell at a regulated rate”, when “EDF faces historical economic difficulties”, “undermines disproportionate attack on his freedom to undertake”.
Friday, deputies of the left alliance Nutpes had filed two appeals to the Constitutional Council against the two texts forming the package on purchasing power, denouncing measures contrary to “several principles” and “values” constitutional .
The first recourse, carried by the intergroup of the Nuts, pin “the monetization of the days of working time (RTT)” and the “Deletion of the audiovisual fee”.
The second, at the initiative of the Insoumise France and Europe-Ecologie-les Verts France only groups, concerns the energy component of the bill purchasing power, believing that it undermines “the objective of value Constitution of environmental protection, common heritage of human beings, arising from the 2004 environment charter “, integrated since 2005 in the preamble to the Constitution.
The Constitutional Council has one month to rule on these appeals.