The French government has promised a financial bailout for cash-strapped energy group EDF so that it can proceed with the £18bn plan to build the first nuclear reactors in Britain for 20 years.

France’s economics minister, Emmanuel Macron, said it would be a mistake for the 85% state-owned company not to build a new Hinkley Point C power plant in Somerset and he would ensure it happened.

“If there is a need to recapitalise (EDF), we will,” he said during a visit to a nuclear power station at Civaux in midwestern France. “If there needs to be a further waiver of dividends (from EDF to government), we will.”

Flanked by Jean-Bernard Lévy, the EDF chief executive under fire from French unions and his own former finance director, Macron added: “If you believe in nuclear, you cannot say that you will not participate in the biggest nuclear project in the world. Not doing Hinkley Point would be a mistake.”

The promise of aid will infuriate British anti-nuclear campaigners but bring relief to the British government, which has billed Hinkley as a vital part of its move to a lower-carbon and secure energy system.

Lévy raised the pressure on the French government last week by writing to EDF staff promising not to build the reactors in Britain unless he received more state help to ease the group’s creaking balance sheet.

The government had already promised to take more shares in EDF, rather than cash payments, for a short time but is now indicating it could stretch this out further as Lévy wants. There is also speculation the government is willing to use the state bank CDC as a buyer for a half share in EDF’s power transmission operation, another way of helping the energy group.

The minister’s public support for EDF came as the French CGT union repeated its calls for him to shelve the £18bn Somerset scheme, which it fears will lead to more job losses in France.

“It will jeopardise the company. We are not saying don’t do it but it must be delayed. It’s too premature,” a spokesman for the union, Sébastien Menesplier, told Reuters as CGT members jeered Macron at Civaux.

The union, which has seats on the EDF board, has said for some time that the energy group cannot afford to proceed with the plants in Britain until EDF finances are strengthened.

The CGT’s hand was bolstered by the resignation last week of EDF’s finance director, Thomas Piquemal, who had put similar arguments to Lévy.

Macron and the French government have always been supportive of EDF’s Hinkley plans. They see the project as an important opportunity to market the country’s new European pressurised reactor (EPR) design and support local engineering jobs.

There have also been reports that state-owned bank CDC might even be asked to take a minority stake in Hinkley. The project is meant to be financed two-thirds by EDF and one-third by Chinese partners.

The scheme is ultimately to be funded by British energy consumers under a controversial and generous subsidy arrangement agreed with the Treasury. Many in the City have said the scheme does not make financial sense for Britain – or for EDF. One analyst last week called the plan “insane”.



Hinkley will rise to the top of the British political agenda next week with confirmation that Vincent de Rivaz, boss of EDF’s UK arm, will be forced to answer critics of the nuclear project at a parliamentary committee meeting.

The energy and climate change committee has called EDF, and other energy companies planning to build reactors in the UK, to give evidence on the future of the nuclear industry on Wednesday.

Angus MacNeil MP, who chairs the committee, said: “The government is counting on new nuclear to supply a significant proportion of the UK’s demand for low-carbon baseload power in future.

“The focus right now is on Hinkley Point C but there are other important projects in the pipeline. Serious questions are being raised about the cost and viability of the Hinkley project and the value for money for taxpayers.”

There has been widespread criticism of the generous subsidy arrangement agreed between the Treasury and EDF. Some analysts in the City of London have criticised the Hinkley project because the company has been promised a subsidy level – ultimately paid for through bills to energy consumers – that is double the current cost of wholesale electricity.

The government insists it is a good deal because the future price of power will rise and many existing coal, nuclear and even gas plants are closing down.