The failure of the negotiations between the member states, on October 20, in order to contain the prices of gas and electricity, sounds like a disavowal for the French head of state who was betting on a responsiveness of the twenty Seven as during the crisis due to the COVVI-19.
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There are few markers as strong in macronism as attachment to the European project. However, five years after the Sorbonne speech, the European star of the Head of State pale. The resignation of the British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, Thursday October 20, overshadowed an equally worrying, although less visible reality: the failure of European energy negotiations, and the incapacity of the old continent to contain prices that defy all economic logic. Putting part of the member states not only on your knees, but also threatening European cohesion.
The conclusions of the summit, at the end of last week, are hardly reassuring: the twenty-seven concluded that it was necessary to “urgently” find “concrete solutions” on the issue of gas prices, including the explosion For a year, the prices of electricity has been ricocheting. Including in France, while the energy “mix” of France, from almost 70 % of inexpensive nuclear electricity, should protect it.
It has been almost a year since Paris militates for a recast of the rules of the European electricity market, in order to lower prices. With, at this stage, few results. However, the subject is crucial: our ultra-dependent energy savings forced all European states to take over these price differences, in a new “whatever it costs” which is not assumed As such, but already exceeds 500 billion euros according to the Brussels Brussels Think Tank. France spent 50 billion euros, in 2021, to protect households, and has planned to disbody another 50 billion in 2023. What will it do if the energy prices do not drop?
risk of relocations
Friday, Emmanuel Macron said he was “very confident” about the chances of reaching an agreement. The Elysée arises that it was necessary to manage the supply problems first to spend the winter, by finding other suppliers than Russia. “It is in reality only since the end of the summer that the subject of prices has imposed itself,” confirms a relative of negotiations. However, other countries, starting with Spain and Portugal, obtained protective mechanisms in March, lowering the bill for their manufacturers. The mechanism may not be replicable, but it questions. “We lost six months, annoys Ludovic Subran, chief economist for the German insurer Allianz. Emmanuel Macron was monopolized by the campaign and has dropped guard on European subjects. And we can see that between Macron and Scholz [the German Chancellor], the current does not pass. “
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