Brussels asked the Czech Republic to suspend the signing of a contract for two nuclear reactors granted to the KHNP company of South Korea suspect from having received subsidies that distort the competition, in a letter seen on Monday.
The letter of the industry commissioner, Stéphane Séjourné, reports a progress procedure that can lead to the opening of an investigation by the European Executive. This procedure aims to verify that the rules of the game have been quite fair in the tender launched by Czech Cez energy and won by KHNP, to the detriment of the French group EDF.
In his letter dated May 2, Stéphane Séjourné asked the Minister of Czech Industry, Lukas Vlcek, not to sign the contract until the European Commission has reached its conclusions. KHNP had been selected in the summer of 2024 to build two nuclear reactors at the Dukany (South) plant and the agreement would be ratified on May 7 during an official ceremony. But a Czech court blocked the signing of the contract with KHNP, while Justice decides a complaint filed by EDF.
“He is not a French commissioner who defends French interests”
Cez, controlled by the State, operates two nuclear plants, Temelin and Dukany, both located in the south of the country. They represent about 40% of the national electricity production. “The content of the Charter (of the Commission) must be rejected by the Czech Republic,” reacted the head of CEZ on Monday, Daniel Benes, cited by the National Agency CTK.
On February 12, the European Commission had claimed information from CEZ and KHHH, as part of a new European regulation that entered into force in July 2023 to guarantee the integrity of calls to tenders. The instrument aims to prevent these markets from being distorted by unfair public aid of foreign states. It has already been implemented to rule out groups of Chinese contracts they had won.
A commission spokesman, Thomas Regnier, stressed on Monday that Cez had not responded to the executive’s requests.
“He is not a French commissioner who defends French interests. He is a member of the University (European commissioners) that applies legislation and dialogue with Czech authorities to protect our single market,” he said at a press conference. KHNP proposed to build the two new units for around 200 billion Czech crowns each (8 billion euros). The site must begin in 2029 for a start -up of the first reactor in 2036.
Source: BFM TV
