As time goes on, things get more and more complicated, and the costs of our support for our European brothers and sisters in Ukraine increases, the need for rapid movements, solutions, and stronger reactions becomes more and more prominent.

Following on from a conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, where they discussed the ongoing energy crisis and the and need for additional measures to deal with the situation.

“I wanted to take a quick look at the situation in energy and economic terms for our country and for Europe in the context we are experiencing” stated President Macron, setting the scene for what was to come.

“We have been seeing it for several months. Our country was first subjected to a rise in energy prices, largely driven by a resumption of very intense activity in Moscow, a situation which was then aggravated by the Russian war in Ukraine. And taking into account what Russia represents on the market for fossil fuels, whether gas or oil. At the beginning of 2022, I want to remind you of the situation here, 25% of all European energy was gas, and 50% of this gas came from Russia. This is the situation.”

A French Combat

Calling for individual responsibility and ‘sobriety’ in order to avoid the need for rationing, the President called for measures that wouldn’t sound out of place if France itself found itself at war.

"Everyone has their role to play" Macron declared, underlining the, right now, "the best energy is that which we do not consume". He went on to outline that it was imperative that French citizens “save 10% of what we currently consume”, that we turn down the air conditioning when it is hot and “stick to a heating reference of around 19°C in the room” when it gets colder this winter .

With these measures, "quite spontaneously, the country will be able to achieve its sobriety objectives and thus avoid going towards something more coercive, rationing" .

He was clear about the actions of the French state, underlining that “France is one of the countries that has done the most to protect households and SMEs in Europe”, underlining that state action had “avoided a 50 to 70% increase in gas and electricity prices for our compatriots.”

However, even with this great success, he underlined the necessity “to target aid even more effectively and have a more structural response" in the coming months, with every effort being made to avoid the need to make any cuts. However:

“If we see that we are not there (…) at that time, we will ask ourselves the question “should we be more restrictive? And what control measures should be put in place, measures to start moving towards a strategy, either of constraint or of rationing?”. That, this second step, I think, once again, is in our hands. If we are all responsible (…), everything suggests that we will not reach this second threshold. But in any case, there is then a second threshold where we have constrained sobriety. I don't want to start there because I prefer to play on responsibility.”

However, if there is a need to make any cuts, Emmanuel Macron was clear that this would be done in a responsible way, and would target those who have not shown solidarity with the country or the Union.

"…if we see that we are starting to slip, maybe we will say 'we are going to look in the sectors, in the places where the mechanisms are obviously, what we were expecting voluntarily, not applied”. So we're going to put more constraints and then a new stage on the rocket, what we call rationing. That is to say that there, we are going, in certain sectors, to ration. That is really, I would say, almost a penultimate mechanism. This rationing plan is the one that will save us from cuts and cuts, it will only intervene as a last resort.!

True European Solidarity

One of the big announcements, of course, was that France was ready to show solidarity with one of our closest allies, Germany, in the weeks and months to come, and that it would receive solidarity in return.

"Germany needs our gas, and we need the electricity produced in the rest of Europe, and in particular in Germany" he explained in clear terms, highlighting the challenges that French nuclear power currently faces while some of our national power plants are under maintenance. “We will contribute to European solidarity in gas and benefit from European solidarity in electricity. In the weeks and months to come, this will be translated into Franco-German soldarity in a very concrete way”

Macron also outlined the plan to develop the infrastructure required to make this happen, something that will go a long way in strengthening not only French, but EU strategic autonomy in terms of Energy.

“In the coming weeks, we will finalize the gas connections necessary to be able to deliver gas to Germany if there is a need for solidarity, and whenever there is a need. Already today, for the first time in a very long time, France is exporting gas to the rest of Europe. We are going to step up and put ourselves in a position to show solidarity on the gas plan with Germany if the winter is difficult and it needs it. “

However, it was made clear that this is a two-way street, with the embattled German Chancellor having also “committed to electricity solidarity with France and [putting] itself in a position (…) to bring its solidarity to us in peak situations. This Franco-German solidarity is the commitment we made with Chancellor Scholz”

Finally, he touched upon even European level action, raising the cap on russian gas that is expected to be discussed in an upcoming European Council meeting. He was clear that “If the [European] commission were to decide to put a ceiling on the price of gas purchased through the gas pipelines from Russia, France would support such a measure…[which] seems likely to be consistent with our policy of sanctions and to reduce its prices".

On top of this, he made it clear that France supported “Common gas purchasing practices”, which in his words, “would allow Europe [to buy] together, to buy cheaper”

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