PARIS (Reuters) – The planned nationalisation of French power utility EDF will not result in an increase in the electricity bills of French households, government spokesman Olivier Veran said on Sunday.
“The nationalisation of EDF will have no impact on the cost of electricity for the French people,” Veran told LCI television.
EDF and the French government are seeking a new boss to overhaul the power utility and build more nuclear reactors, they said on Thursday, a day after France announced it would fully nationalise the debt-laden company.
EDF, in which the state already has an 84% stake, is one of Europe’s biggest utilities and is central to France’s nuclear strategy, which the government is banking on to blunt the impact of soaring energy prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Alison Williams)