Brussels, 19/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 19 July, the European Commission opened an in-depth investigation into the contribution of the French State to the restructuring of the nuclear group Areva, a public enterprise controlled directly or indirectly by the State, to the tune of 86.5%.
The group has been experiencing financial difficulties for more than five years. In April of this year, France notified the Commission of a restructuring plan which included public aid in the form of an injection of public capital of €4 billion. The plan aims to bring the group back to competitiveness and to cleanse its financial structure. It is accompanied by refocusing on the nuclear fuel cycle through various disposals and divestments of certain activities.
At this stage, the Commission plans to verify whether the assumptions of the restructuring plan aiming to bring the company back to long-term viability are sufficiently realistic to allow Areva to operate without a continuous injection of public cash. It needs to make sure that the group is genuinely and sufficiently contributing to the costs of its restructuring and that the measures proposed by France to limit competition distortions are proportionate to the distortions created by the aid granted. In order to do this, it will work on the basis of the July 2014 guidelines on the restructuring of businesses in difficulty other than financial establishments. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)