The FECER (Fédération Européenne des Cadres de l’Energie et de la Recherche) held its 2024 General Assembly in Alsace. FECER, one of the components of the CEC European Managers, once again placed the reality on the ground with a site visit at the heart of its reflections and positions on European energy policy.
The annual meeting gave FECER the opportunity to discuss the “Draghi Report”, as well as the “Beyunbi Seminars”, organized by CEC on the unconscious biases that influence our decisions. FECER is an active participant in this CEC initiative.
Ahead of the statutory meeting, hosted by Anne LASZLO, President of the FECER and member of the Public Affairs team of the French Trade Union CFE Énergies, representatives from French, Belgian, German, Lithuanian, Hungarian and Italian Trade Unions visited the facilities at Kembs, led by Yassine BELHADJ, responsible, along with around fifty EDF employees, for the Kembs and Ottmarsheim sites.
The FECER engineers were very impressed by the visit in the “belly“ of the power plant, which after more than 90 years of power generation, is currently undergoing maintenance work.
They were also interested in the new fish pass and the renaturation of the nearby Rhine Island. The lock keeper, a former employee of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant, explained the new job she learned after the closure of the EDF nuclear power plant in Alsace on behalf of a former French Government. Thomas ROCHEFEUILLE, head of the Centre de Conduite et de Surveillance (Hydraulic Control and Monitoring Center), explained the complex interactions between navigation, network balance, nature protection and cross-border relations France-Germany-Switzerland, without ever losing sight of the safety of employees and installations.
During the discussion that followed the visit, Alexandre GRILLAT, General Secretary of the CFE Énergies, welcomed FECER’s determination to make its voice heard on energy and research issues, which are vital for the future of Europe: “Welcome to Alsace, where hydropower plays an important role in the energy mix. Because Europe’s energy and climate future depends on mobilizing all low-carbon energies, while respecting technological neutrality!”