The wrangling between governments and utilities over super-profits, quietly going on in a number of European countries, broke into the open in Belgium mid-October.rnIn an October 15 statement GDF Suez Group said it had informed the Belgian government that it "emphatically protests the preliminary draft for a law" which would require the country's nuclear operators to make a contribution of €250 million for the 2008 financial year. Should the draft be approved by parliament, GDF Suez said it would submit a claim for annulment with the Constitutional Court. GDF Suez subsidiary Electrabel controls over 90% of the country's 5,760-MW nuclear fleet. SPE owns the rest.rnGDF Suez said it considered the principle behind such a contribution to be contestable, "more specificallyrnbecause this would be discriminatory, since this measure would affect only the two Belgian generators of nuclear energy and this without the difference in treatment being justified by any objective connection between the measure and the considerations of general interest concerning the generation of nuclear energy."
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