When the boss of your nation’s biggest energy company describes their and your situation as “poor” and “under pressure” you might need some light relief, why not look at the neighbours and cheer yourself up with their “disaster”.
That appears to have been the tactic from EDF Energy boss Henri Proglio who said:
“When it comes to energy they are in a disaster. Their two major companies – E.On and RWE [nPower] – are under huge pressure. One is more or less dead, the other one is in a very difficult situation.
“It’s too easy to say today France is doing bad, because it’s obvious. On the fiscal point of view, France, in my view, made some bad choices for a few years. Over-taxation is very negative for the country. On the other hand, we have some very good companies.”
Contrasting his business with their German counterparts, Proglio said EDF was doing
“quite well”
With friends like these?
To be fair to Proglio his point was in comparing the UK and France’s attitude to nuclear power enabling his business to benefit from the Hinkley C development whilst the German energy sector, in contrast, has unilaterally phased-out nuclear power severely damaged its two biggest companies.
Proglio said:
“[It is] very important to consider industry as a key driver for growth. You have to force a country to make some improvements in overheads, public overheads and to drive more investment.”