PARIS (Reuters) – A troubled plan to restructure French energy group EDF was not on the agenda of a meeting on Tuesday between trade unions and President Emmanuel Macron, one of the participants told reporters.
The reform, backed by Macron’s administration, has been fiercely opposed by trade unions, who have staged strikes and organised street protests to express their opposition.
Some key backers of the reform are now scaling back their efforts to push the changes through and the chances of them getting done before the presidential election in April next year have narrowed, five people familiar with the process told Reuters.
EDF shares were down 4.1 percent at 11.41 euros by 1222 GMT. Many investors are keen for the reform to go ahead, because its backers say it will allow the most profitable parts of EDF’s business to grow faster.
Thursday’s meeting at the Elysee Palace included unions, employer lobby groups, Macron, and his senior ministers. Asked if the EDF reform had been discussed, leader of the CFDT union Laurent Berger said: “No, it wasn’t on the agenda.”
(Reporting by Caroline Pailliez and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
