France is set to raise electricity bills at the beginning of 2024

France announced an increase in electricity bills at the beginning of next year, as French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire promised citizens that the increase in electricity prices wouldn’t exceed more than 10%.

In his statements to Radio Europe 1, Le Maire stressed that he will respect this commitment and will make efforts to achieve it as of the beginning of 2024.

Le Maire explained that the state needs to gradually abandon the policy of subsidizing citizens’ electricity bills, which cost 40 billion Euros last year.

He stressed the need to build 6 new nuclear energy units to ensure energy security, which requires investments amounting to 50 billion Euros, which will be included in French energy bills.

In a related context, an agreement was signed with the government energy company EDF to determine a new model for electricity prices starting in 2026, where the price of nuclear electricity was set at 70 Euros per megawatt-hour, which will give the company the ability not to sell electricity at a loss.

Last August, the government stopped implementing the tariff shield, which was imposed in 2021 to limit the increase in electricity prices, which affected more than 22 million French citizens.

Since the beginning of this year, electricity prices have been raised by 15%, which has led to an increase in the average electricity bills of French citizens by 25%.

This rise affected many companies and industries in France, leading to the closure of some of them.