French bosses are prepared to make efforts to meet a government demand to cut energy consumption by around 10 per cent to avoid rationing amid soaring prices and fears of power shortages as the war in Ukraine grinds on, their chief said on Monday (Aug 29).
"We are looking at it, it is not impossible. It is a significant effort but absolutely necessary because we want to avoid rationing that stops production," Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux told France Inter radio.
The Medef, France's main employer association, holds its annual post summer conference on Monday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivering the opening address.
He will be followed by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
She is expected to urge businesses to step up their efforts to save energy as power prices which, shaken by the war abroad and nuclear production problems at home, reached new record highs at over ten times their pre-crisis level.
France is less reliant than some neighbours on gas imports from Russia, which account for about 17 per cent of its gas consumption.
But concerns about supply from Russia nevertheless remain.
