Faced with concerns about soaring energy prices, Elisabeth Borne gave details on Tuesday, August 30. The Prime Minister said in the Quotidien program on the TMC channel that any gas cuts, in the event of a shortage of this source of energy, would not concern households but businesses, which are the biggest consumers. “The cuts, they do not concern households (…) we are not going to cut the gas in French households, but it is on our companies, the large consumers, that there could be cuts”, has she indicated.
To avoid these cuts, she again invited the French, individuals and businesses, to reduce their consumption of gas or electricity, while certain nuclear reactors producing electricity are stopped. “Anything we can do to lower our consumption will prevent us from getting into situations where we should have cuts,” she said. These cuts could occur “if all the wrong assumptions come together: if Russia cuts its supplies, if ever there are tensions on LNG (liquefied natural gas) and the orders we have placed are not honored, s ’there is a very cold winter,’ she said.
The head of government explained again that she was in favor of “radical measures” in terms of ecological transition but that she did not support a model of “degrowth”. “In France, we are all attached to our social model (…) We must reconcile radical changes to fight against climate change, but this should not lead us to plead for a society of decline. Financing our social model, it is not compatible with those who advocate degrowth. We need to find a new model of sustainable growth,” she said. Monday before the Medef, Elisabeth Borne had urged companies to quickly reduce their energy consumption so as to avoid “rationing” measures.
While the Prime Minister was on the TMC set, the Russian giant Gazprom announced that it was going to completely suspend its gas deliveries to the French group Engie from Thursday, September 1, due to the latter’s non-payment of the all deliveries made in July. Under a decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin signed at the end of March, Gazprom specifies that “it is prohibited to deliver more natural gas to a foreign buyer if the buyer has not made payment in full within the set period. in the contract”. However, Gazprom affirms not to have received Tuesday at the end of the day the entirety of the sums due for the deliveries of July.
Engie, contacted by AFP on Tuesday evening, declined to comment on Gazprom’s announcement. On Tuesday morning, Engie announced that Gazprom had informed it of additional and immediate reductions in its gas deliveries “due to a disagreement between the parties on the application of contracts”.
The group recalled having already put in place measures to be able to supply its customers, even in the event of an interruption in Gazprom flows. Asked at the end of the program about this announcement, Elisabeth Borne said that the French group benefited from “other sources of supply”, without specifying which ones. Deliveries of Russian gas to Engie had already dropped considerably since the start of the conflict in Ukraine.