French officials had already started publicly indicating they felt EDF shouldered some of the blame.
Joël Barre, the French government’s watchdog for its nuclear power efforts, told POLITICO several weeks ago that the slipping timeline was partly due to the country’s political gridlock in 2024, which slowed down government decisions. But he also cited “a delay on the part of EDF in firming up and consolidating the estimate and timetable” to build its reactors.
For instance, Barre said, the French government had expected cost estimates by the end of last year, but that timeline had slipped to the end of 2025 or even early 2026.
This postponement “was felt to be absolutely unacceptable, all the more so as it came as a surprise,” the second advisor said.
“From an industrial perspective, two years were lost,” said a former French official. And in that timeframe, “the crazy energy devoted [by Rémont] to his commercial policy and against regulating has not been devoted to … in fact … managing the company,” they added.
Rémont’s European ambitions also raised questions. The EDF boss, already involved in projects in the U.K. and France, is also pitching reactors across the continent, from the Czech Republic to Sweden, Italy and Poland. Asked about the strategy after presenting the 2024 finances, he said his goal is to create “sufficient space” to bring the European nuclear industry “to the highest level of performance.”
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