Others are not so sure about the impact nationalization will have.
“Will this help EDF’s financial position? Not automatically,” says Denis Floren, partner at energy consultancy Lavoisier Conseil.
“The state may have more control without minority shareholders, but it puts the company in a more difficult position when it comes to Brussels because they cannot claim to be a standard company.”
One reading of the move is political, Florin believes. “It will be liked left and right. The Socialists partly support nuclear power, and Marine Le Pen said she would build not five or six, but 12 EPRs.
Nuclear skeptics argue that EDF has a more fundamental problem than state ownership can solve: the cost and long time to build nuclear power compared to other technologies.
“[Nationalisation] it may change the state’s capacity to directly support the plans, but that does not change the fact that it will not be profitable,” says Yves Marignac of the négaWatt Association think tank.
“Nuclear energy is extremely uneconomic. The market said no, adds Dr Paul Dorfman, a research fellow at the University of Sussex.
Pablo Sánchez of the European Union of Public Services notes that success will depend on what measures deliver to households. Otherwise, “for the French consumer who is about to be cut off because they use too much energy, it will mean nothing,” he says.
Full nationalization looms over EDF at a sensitive time for its UK operations. The company is closing in on a funding agreement with the UK government for its Sizewell C project in Suffolk.
The GMB union warned of the risk of a delay amid “likely government paralysis [in Westminster] because of a lame prime minister”. Andy Prendergast, national secretary, said he was seeking meetings with the government to try to speed up progress.
He added that while there was “always a danger” of France’s needs being put ahead of the UK’s, the GMB supported the effective nationalization of EDF.
France’s move comes as German energy giant Uniper seeks help from its own government to overcome an energy crisis, while Whitehall effectively temporarily nationalized Bulb Energy after it collapsed due to high gas prices. GMB believes the UK should go further as France’s move reignites calls for the nationalization of the UK’s energy sector, once championed by former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn.
“The energy sector is of vital importance to the country. We have long believed that it should be returned to public ownership to ensure both energy security and that it is run in the national interest – not in the interests of shareholders,” Prendergast said.
As the energy and political crises unfold in the coming months, France’s move could be the first of many.
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