Energy roadmap: Energy stakeholders annoyed by political procrastination

"This text provides essential visibility and direction," argued Engie CEO Catherine MacGregor in a LinkedIn post. "Faced with the attempts to block it, it seems essential to me to reiterate why this exercise is crucial for our energy future," she added.

"The PPE (multi-annual energy planning, editor's note) is not a technocratic abstraction: it sets concrete, quantified objectives for 2030 and 2035, allowing energy players and manufacturers to guide their strategies and secure their long-term commitments," she explains.

Prime Minister François Bayrou proposed on Wednesday that a debate be held in Parliament "in the coming weeks" on the third PPE (PPE3), which plans the country's energy resources for the period 2025-2035.

Its adoption by decree, provided for in the Energy Code, is strongly criticized by right-wing parties in Parliament, as well as by supporters of nuclear energy.

The document, which sets targets for energy production and consumption by 2035 to put France on the path to carbon neutrality by 2050, is open for public consultation until April 5.

Mr. Bayrou's entourage did not specify whether the decree would be published before or after the debate.

Sterile opposition

Ms. MacGregor is not alone. "We are all fully aligned with this need for visibility and to move forward quickly to be able to deliver renewable energy and achieve France's objectives," another energy company told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Energy infrastructure managers agree. "The PPE is very important and we are waiting for its publication," said Laurence Poirier-Dietz, CEO of GRDF, which manages the gas distribution network, on Thursday.

The energy transition "is a matter of sovereignty and competitiveness," stressed Sandrine Meunier, CEO of NaTran (formerly GRTGAZ), during a press conference in Paris on Thursday.

Operators "need to have this visibility to be able to size and consider infrastructure," she noted.

A position echoed by Industry and Energy Minister Marc Ferracci on Wednesday during questions to the government. He fears the current regulatory vacuum since the end of the previous PPE (2019-2024).

"This contributes to suspending a number of investments, to suspending a number of calls for tenders which, today, are missing from our energy trajectory, are also missing from job creation," he said.

And while right-wing and centrist parliamentarians have castigated a draft decree giving "prominence to intermittent energy sources (wind or photovoltaic)", Ms. MacGregor deplored "a sterile opposition between nuclear and renewable energies".

"Playing nuclear power against renewables is a dead end; we must move forward on both fronts with pragmatism and ambition," she concluded.

"We need a PPE," summarized Jules Nyssen, president of the Renewable Energy Union (SER). "It is essential to the future of our energy system, including the EPR 2 program (future nuclear reactors, editor's note), which otherwise has not been formalized anywhere," he emphasized.

"Let's have this parliamentary debate, but let's not block the PPE in the name of a false democratic pretext that is today being exploited for reasons that have nothing to do with it," he pleaded.