The system of aid to companies in difficulty in the face of the explosion in energy prices will be simplified again “to save the French industrial fabric,” the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, said on Friday.
“There is a strategic issue today which is to save the French industrial fabric in the face of rising energy prices,” he added, noting that French industry was “threatened and weakened.”
An envelope of 3,000 million euros
An endowment of three billion euros is dedicated to companies for which energy represents more than 3% of their turnover and that “have no possibility of having an impact (on their price) because they have international competitors less threatened by price increases” . The reference year that is currently used as a criterion for obtaining aid is 2021 “but since it shot up in 2022, it is not a good reference”, recognized Bruno Le Maire, referring to a simplification of the device “before the end of the month of October”. “.
The Minister urged companies to register on the website of the General Directorate of Public Finances to receive “the aid they need to save the French industrial fabric”.
“Gasworks”
The device, described as a “gas factory” by the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, had already been simplified due to the low use of the endowment, in particular in the criterion linked to the fall in the gross operating surplus to determine the eligibility. At the same time, the government is negotiating with the European Union to obtain “at the end of October a decoupling of the price of gas and electricity,” recalled Le Maire.
In the beginning of the week, the main fournisseurs of gas and electricity also signed a letter of good practices, mainly for PME, promising to prevent their clients from earlier than the arrival of their contract and leur proposer au moins an offer.
For its part, the State will facilitate the signing of contracts by providing its guarantee to the companies and will hire a “negotiator” to help them sign.
Source: BFM TV
