The Minister Delegate for SMEs, Olivia Gregoire, on a trip to Lyon on Friday, said she wanted to ask energy suppliers at a meeting in Bercy next week to grant a delay to VSE-SMEs so that they can pay bills in the “next three to six months”.
“It could be common sense to try to give breath to our VSEs” by “trying to ask a time, a delay (to energy suppliers, editor’s note) to be able to pay (their) bills”, without “penalty and in good conditions” in the “three to six months that come”, said the minister at a press briefing at the exit of a visit to a bakery in Lyon in the 5th district of the capital of Gaules.
These are “devices that were put in place during the health crisis” and can again be implemented, said the delegate in charge of Small and Medium Enterprises, Trade, Crafts and Tourism.
Together with the Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, and the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Ms. Gregoire will hold a meeting on October 5 at Bercy with all energy suppliers to address “a number of issues” to “find a solution to better protect our small businesses.”
During this trip, the Minister also warned small and medium-sized businesses about fraudulent energy contracts.
“If you find yourself in the situation where you have to sign a new energy contract” and that this one “presents an incomprehensible increase”, “I repeat, do not sign!”, she hammered, asking them to seize the mediator of the energy which sits in Bercy and which will be able to then appeal to the general direction of the repression, the frauds and the competition.
For his part, Mr. Le Maire also asked, Friday morning on Europe 1, energy suppliers, additional efforts to ensure “reasonable prices” to SMEs, accusing them of not enough “play the game”, citing directly TotalEnergies, Engie and EDF.
