Europe needs words. Words that come in lists. Preferably lists of three, lists that build to a crescendo, lists for the people of Europe. And platitudes. Let us not forget platitudes. About unity. And delivering. Decisively. For the people of Europe.
The greatest man you've never heard of died this week on Wednesday, September 6th.
Marcel Boiteux built the French nuclear fleet as head of national utility EdF, making superb, far-sighted decisions against powerful entrenched interests.
Decisions such as abandoning the poorly-performing French gas reactors for outstanding Westinghouse technology.
And insisting on ruthless standardization that allowed true learning-by-doing, with his teams completing several reactors a year for more than a decade.
His fleet provides 70% of French electricity, and but for the sabotage by his weak, stupid successors inside and outside French government, it should be making half again as much electricity as the 56 reactors do today.
Boiteux's reactor fleet (plus a few more units after his retirement) cost about $150 billion. Compare this to Germany spending about $500 billion on their mess of an "energy transition" which requires them to keep almost all of their coal and gas plants in service.
As a young man Marcel Boiteux refused to accept France's defeat and at age 21 in 1942 as an elite university student he escaped Nazi-occupied France while escorting downed Allied pilots over the Pyrenees mountains to safety in Spain.
Brass. Balls.
This episode revealed the pattern for the rest of his life.
After the war, he studied economics and wrote *the* foundational paper in electricity economics, on how to price electricity service in a way that covered system costs while being fair and sustainable.
He completely understood liberal economics, and knew it did not apply to electricity grids and service. He built cheap power for all, then after his retirement watched as a bunch of pathetic hack economists broke the grid with idiotic "markets" that are failing all over the world.
He rapidly rose in public service after university graduation, and after appointment to the head of Electricité de France, successfully built the most astonishing energy system in the history of the world, proving for all time that a country could truly rely on its own fleet of standardized nuclear reactors producing low-cost emissions-free energy.
Anti-nuclear terrorists exploded a bomb outside the door of his family home in 1977 but he kept building.
It must have been torture for this truly great man to watch twenty years of silly, unserious leaders damage and begin to destroy his beloved EDF and its fleet of reactors, leading France straight into its worst energy crisis since the oil crisis of 1973 that triggered Boiteux's nuclear fleet construction in the first place.
But he didn't come up with the idea of a nuclear fleet powering a total electrification of the economy because an oil crisis hit. He was too prophetic to be a mere reactionary. Rather, he declared the slogan "All nuclear, all electric" months before the OPEC embargo hit in 1973.
Marcel Boiteux died this week at the age of 101.
@TomislavSokol calls for ongoing energy in EU #cancer policy, including achieving the #RighttoBeForgotten within EU consumer credit legislation, and tackling at European level the oncology workforce crisis.
Really glad to attend the launch of the European Cancer Community Foundation @EurCancerDonate at the European Parliament, thanks to the work of Mike Morrissey and the team of the @EuropeanCancer organisation.
Important work ahead!
You can follow live: https://t.co/phpMSIGwQ5
💬In light of the #EPSCO Health Council taking place on 13 June, the Council published the progress reports of two key #health Regulations - the #EHDS and the #SoHO.
Check them out👇
🔹EHDS - https://t.co/J4IlCZmKxC
🔹SoHO - https://t.co/d1BO0l6iPo
I am attending this morning the European Blood Alliance’s event on SoHo regulation at the EP, hosted by MEPs @DolorsMM and Nicolas Gonzales Casares.
Great insights in SoHO improvements to come!
The Commission has launched a Call for Evidence on new rules to prohibit EU exports of hazardous chemicals that are banned within the bloc.
It's a key moment to protect the environment and human health beyond our borders💚
Participate👇
https://t.co/m1SWKPrf8Y
Pharma package update
EPP will get rapporteur for directive (data protection, incentives, environment)
S&D will get regulation (transferable exclusivity vouchers, orphan drug incentive, EMA reform, shortages)
https://t.co/QJy1ggCa8A
🗣️"Avec 500 000 euros par an, on vit."
@CecileDuflot, directrice générale d’Oxfam France, propose un salaire maximum de 40 000 euros par mois.
📺 #franceinfo canal 27 #VIPol
With great scale comes great responsibility 🇪🇺
Extra #DSA obligations as of 25 August for:
AliExpress
Amazon Store
AppStore
Bing
Booking
Facebook
Google Maps
Google Play
Google Search
Google Shopping
Instagram
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Snapchat
TikTok
Twitter
Wikipedia
YouTube
Zalando
Quand je pense que sans les Allemands, le siège de l’UE aurait été à Nice. Mais ça faisait trop jouissifs pour eux. Ça a donc été Chantilly puis finalement Bruxelles
📆💊 The #Pharma Package appears on the agenda for the meeting of the Working Party on Public Health, scheduled on Thursday, 27 April.
Check the agenda👇
https://t.co/KGe76NgkVl
#EUhealth#pharma
Today in 🇪🇺 Health
🔹EP Plenary - EU Global #Health Strategy
🔹Coreper 2 - agreement on the Regulation of the medicinal products for to be placed on the market in Northern Ireland & on the Regulation on the EU Drugs Agency
🔹MDCG - Clinical Investigation and Evaluation (CIE) WG
[Fit for 55] Social Climat Fund just adopted by EP plenary ✅
« We have now agreed on the holy trinity SCF/ETS/CBAM » says @peterliese and @Esther_de_Lange
Le Réseau européen d’éthique publique (auquel appartient la HATVP) propose à la Commission européenne d'inclure dans son paquet anticorruption des "standards minimaux communs pour placer l’intégrité personnelle et publique au cœur des principes de l’UE"
https://t.co/XXG8E97aTB