Vinci wants to "emerge from inertia" on EPR financing

"We need to remove the constraints in terms of authorizations" to speed up construction, and provide for "mixed private and public financing" based on the model of partnerships that "work very well" at present to build high-voltage lines "both in Brazil and in Australia," declared Mr. Huillard during a meeting with the press on Thursday, while his group is participating in the construction of numerous energy infrastructures throughout the world.

"All the major French infrastructures, railways, RATP network, power stations or water networks were designed, financed and built on this model" in the 19th century and early 20th century", noted Pierre Anjolras, called to succeed Mr. Huillard as general manager of the group from the spring.

"The country was built like that, there is even still a Rothschild room at the SNCF headquarters," he noted.

"On the EPRs, everything is unclear, EDF is waiting to finalise the financing, because it still does not have the response from the State to obtain its financing and it cannot see things in the long term", deplores Mr Huillard.

"There is no movement and yet this issue is extremely urgent," he adds. To "emerge from inertia," the leader advocates a "mixture of private and public financing" on the PPP (public-private partnership) model "to launch calls for tenders based on very precise specifications."

"Traditional public money will not be enough, given the scale of the needs, and the PPP is all the easier to implement according to him, as it gives the possibility of "monetizing future revenues" on the energy produced, and therefore "raising debt" to finance the work.

"EDF is not capable of financing the colossal investment of six EPRs from its own resources," added Mr. Huillard, "we have lost a lot of time" since the announcement of the relaunch of nuclear power by Emmanuel Macron on February 10, 2022 in Belfort, he added.