French PM Yields over Gas, Fuel Price Hikes
French prime minister Edouard Philippe has deferred a planned increase in regulated retail gas and electricity prices, that was due to have taken effect January 1, until after the winter.
It is not yet clear if and how the government will compensate firms such as Engie and EDF for any loss of income resulting from the deferral of this approved price rise.
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The French PM also announced a six-month freeze in planned duty increases on motor diesel and gasoline. The duty increases were an integral part of president Emmanuel Macron’s decarbonisation strategy, which aimed to redistribute such fiscal proceeds towards improving the energy efficiency of buildings and expanding France’s renewable power generation capacity. The announcement therefore represents a temporary climbdown in the face of huge nationwide protests during the past three weekends – including the worst street unrest in Paris since 1968.
Philippe said duty increases will not be applied until they have been fully debated by all stakeholders. But he said that some measures will need to be applied then, and that if they cannot be agreed, the government would draw its own consequences.
'Stakeholders' is understood to include some representatives of protesters wearing ‘gilets jaunes’ (yellow high-visibility jackets) who barricaded many roads and streets in the weekends since mid-October, bringing parts of central Paris to a standstill on December 1. However the protesters have no clear spokespersons, and some 370 were taken into custody and 73 taken to court as of December 3 in Paris alone, according to French broadcaster FranceInfo. Two people are reported to have died during the protests.
In other news, Engie announced the death December 3 of Belgian billionaire Albert Frere, aged 92. Baron Frere, through his Groupe Bruxelles Lambert holding, was instrumental in the sale of Belgian firms Tractebel and Petrofina to respectively Suez and Total over a decade ago, and later supportive of the 2008 merger of French state Gaz de France with Suez. Honorary Engie president Gerard Mestrallet said: "During almost 30 years, Albert Frere was a partner and loyal advisor who helped build the Suez-Lyonnaise des Eaux, GDF Suez and Engie groups."