The Council of State has rejected the request of a collective of bakers to extend to the entire profession the tariff shield on electricity prices, which applies only to some of them, we learned Friday from the lawyer of the applicants.
The Union of Independent Artisan Bakers (Udabi) and seven bakers had invoked in summary proceedings before the highest administrative court a situation of urgency and imminent danger for the sustainability of their businesses.
"It's absurd," reacts the Udabi
They pointed to the surge in electricity prices for bakers whose electricity meter exceeds a power of 36 kilovolts-ampere (kVa) and whose increase in the price of electricity is therefore not limited to 15% this year.
In order to justify its rejection, the Conseil d'État considered that the application of the tariff shield did not have "the character of provisional safeguard measures at very short notice" and that the applicant undertakings were not "exposed at short notice to a cessation of payments".
"It's absurd, it's like going to the emergency room because of a heart attack and being told, come back when your heart is stopped," responded the president of Udabi, Jeremy Ferrer, quoted by his lawyer Christophe Lèguevaques in a statement.
A shock absorber "of extreme complexity"
Mr. Lèguevaques said he was studying "other solutions before the widely documented threat" of the disappearance of many bakeries "becomes a fact abundantly regretted".
For bakers excluded from the tariff shield, the government has set up a shock absorber that should relieve them of 15 to 20% of their electricity bill, which the State pays for it.
But for the bakers' collective, its implementation is "of such complexity that even electricity suppliers do not know how to use it", the beneficiaries having to advance the costs "without being certain to receive one day the promised aid".
- Economy
- Energy
- Bakery
- Electricity
- Inflation
- Council of State