PARIS – France is “confident” that its plan to subsidise six new nuclear reactors will not be delayed by an upcoming investigation into its compatibility with the EU’s competition rules, government officials said on Wednesday.
Paris plans to pump money into its national energy champion EDF toget the reactors built, and expects the European Commission to open an investigation by the end of March, a French government source has confirmed following media reports into a possible competition probe.
The fact that EDF already controls all reactors of France’s massive nuclear power plant fleet “is one of the concerns that will naturally be raised”, the official acknowledged in a call with journalists.
The official line, anticipated by an EDF lobbyist on social media, is that the EU executive’s investigation was part of standard procedure in such cases.
Recent examples
“No nuclear case is approved in a single step, without an investigation,” the official said, pointing to what already happened for the construction of nuclear reactors in Czechia, Poland, and Hungary.
He added that Paris and Brussels had been discussing the plan for a long time, and officially since May 2025, when the French government gave the Commission a first formal notification that it was considering state aid for the major boost to what is already Europe’s largest nuclear fleet.
A separate government source said discussions between Paris and the European Commission were already underway “in a good atmosphere”, and that Paris believes a final investment decision will be possible by the end of the year as planned.
The government wants to extend a loan to the state-controlled company covering 60% of the cost, currently estimated at €72.8 billion in 2020 values. It also intends to guarantee a minimum ‘strike price’ for the new reactors’ electricity for 40 years, under a so-called contract for difference (CfD).
(rh)
