PARIS (Dow Jones)--A deal between French state-controlled power giant Electricite de France (1024251.FR) and Italian counterpart Enel SpA (EN) allowing Enel to take a stake in a new nuclear power station, may help nuclear power to gain acceptance in Italy, EdF Chairman and Chief Executive Pierre Gadonneix said Saturday.
Since "Italy, and therefore Enel, is one of the rare countries of Europe that did not have nuclear competence... one of the only big European countries that has no nuclear power stations," the deal may help nuclear power to gain a foothold in the country, Gadonneix said in an interview on French radio station Europe 1.
"I think it's in the interest of everyone, including EdF and France" for nuclear energy "to again become acceptable in the largest number of European countries," he said. EdF is positioning itself to benefit from a nuclear renaissance in Europe and beyond, and is hoping to build and operate reactors in the U.K.
Gadonneix described the deal with Enel, announced at a Nov. 30 summit between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, as "a consolidation of the accord we had already sketched out two years ago," when EdF took joint control of Italian unit Edison.
Gadonneix also said EdF plans to put proposals on the table "from next week" to reach a deal with workers over a government plan to bring the special retirement conditions of energy workers into line with other public-sector employees.
He said that the government's decision to change the conditions is "legitimate and will be implemented."
But it is also "legitimate that a new balance be found" in negotiations with workers over how to implement the measure, Gadonneix said.
The planned overhaul of the special retirement conditions resulted in nationwide strike action by energy workers on Nov. 20, Nov. 14 and Oct. 18, resulting on each occasion in lower power output from the company's French operations.
Asked to comment on whether the decision, announced by Sarkozy on Nov. 29, for the French state to sell as early as Monday 3% of the company to fund university investment, Gadonneix said he could comment "neither on the modalities nor on the timing," of the placement.
The French state currently owns 87.3% of EdF, and by law can reduce its stake down to 70%.