And then there is the emotional dimension

They intersect for years. Share the same facilities and sometimes together lunching in the canteen. At Erlangen, Siemens historic stronghold, the alliance tied seven years between the French Areva and the German conglomerate lives on a daily basis. Here, in the "more French cities in Bavaria", as likes to call it his Mayor Siegfried Balleis, 3,000 employees of their joint venture Areva NP live more naturally the world with the local employees 23,000 of Siemens. Cohabitees, one should say. As partners of yesterday will engage maybe, tomorrow, a battle without mercy. A month after announcing the end of its alliance with Areva, the Munich Group began the week past rapprochement with Russian Rosatom nuclear, which could soon make him the number one HABs business rival. An unusual and particularly uncomfortable scenario for the employees of Erlangen...

More than an industrial site, the engineers of the cru indeed share a common history. It is in Erlangen that the Franco-German partnership started, when, in the 1990s, the exFramatome engineers have developed the EPR with their colleagues from Siemens KWU. It was here also that the alliance is realized in 2001: employees of the German conglomerate then changed their employer, to join a joint venture with a French public company shareholder. It is here, finally, that, in October 2007, Anne Lauvergeon, Chairperson of the Executive Board of Areva, had reaffirmed its commitment to the Franco-German cooperation, while rumours of an output of Siemens were, already, a stir.

Behind the beautiful sentences, was Areva NP actually a model of successful cooperation between the France and the Germany On-site views. After a period of hesitation, Wolfgang Niclas, head of the section of the trade union IG Metall to Erlangen, responds: "Honestly, it is sometimes the question." It is not the only one. Reinhart Mehn, representing employees at Siemens, would rather Areva NP of "French company with German participation. Heidi Heinlein, Chairperson of the Committee of Areva in Germany, defends on the other hand the idea of a "European company". And Peter Millian, journalist for the local daily newspaper "erlanger nachrichten", speaks of "a technology company, no matter be it French or German."

Chairman of the Committee of Siemens KWU company during the merger, Reinhart Mehn does not hide that in 2000 the partnership in left more than a sceptic. "Initially, it was feared that the joint venture does not work", he said. It was a time where the SPD-Greens coalition voted out of the nuclear Germany and where Heinrich von Pierer, then President of the Board of Siemens, said: "nuclear power, is 5 of my business but 95 of my problems."

The largest recruiter of the region

"The employees had a right to return in Siemens, remembers the Union representative." Very few have used it, first, because they would have had difficulty to find a post interesting in view of their specialization, but also because activity is well worn. Concerns quickly disappeared. And even the opposite has happened: Areva NP hired in Siemens. "From 2004 and the launch of the EPR, the joint venture has even emerged as the largest recruiter of the region.

But it was not always pink. "Of course, there were difficulties." But it always happens to build things in common, to solve the problems around a table, reflects a French engineer on the site of Erlangen. Moreover, these difficulties were most often related to the geographic distance to cultural difference, as if we were working between Lyon and Paris.

The centralization of decisions towards the France was not always well perceived in Germany. AREVA has implemented an organization as matrix trades/country gradually giving priority to the trades. "The direction of the German subsidiary has had less and less decision-making power," said Wolfgang Niclas. "This new organization certainly had his reasons." But, in Germany, we are not lovers of centralization. "When there too, the motivation down", he says.

In fact, Areva was clearly the top in this partnership. When said Siemens Miss "entrepreneurial flexibility", it falls within the euphemism. Know-how, patents, equipment dedicated to R & D, the highly qualified personnel... all of this was transferred to the French industrialist as early as 2001. The German group had no representative in the bodies of direction or control. Nothing to do with the governance of EADS, for example, which requires a balance of power. Siemens, with its 34, was not the Germany as Daimler Aerospace Group. This participation is even not gave him an advantage in bidding for the conventional part (non-nuclear, Editor's note) power plants under construction: Siemens was chosen for the site in Finland, while Alstom is supplier for the Flamanville plant and two Chinese EPR.

This does not mean that the farewell will be easy. At Erlangen, it would have widely preferred that Siemens strengthens capital of Areva. This scenario, defended in the French public authorities, would have allowed the German conglomerate to be present throughout the production chain, instead of having only a minority in the subsidiary of reactors, currently deficit participation because the Finnish site. Paris said no. This is why Siemens turned to Rosatom.

Concerns

The Siemens about-face sparked a great misunderstanding among the German employees of Areva. Curiously, the refusal of the French Government, much less. "A contract, it is a contract!", recognizes Wolfgang Niclas. And the shareholders Pact signed in 2001 provided well that Siemens might be forced out of the joint venture as early as 2009. Here, step of outburst against French authorities who prefer national interests at the expense of their European partners, frequent comments in the German business community. "You will hear not this kind of criticism at Erlangen, explains journalist Peter Millian." It is in the departments, in Berlin, said this sort of thing. "The German Government employees waited not helpful, except"surrender of abandonment"of nuclear power. It will not intervene before the next legislative elections in September.

Trade unions do not want to break their concerns to the big day to preserve a good social climate, but they exist. In reaffirming its willingness to continue its development in Germany very quickly, Areva sought to reassure the employees of the Bavarian site. Even at the Franco-German cultural centre of Erlangen, Eva Steffan, Assistant Director, testified that "a lot of people l' were interviewed on this subject." Before that Siemens announces its willingness to break the partnership, IG Metall had sent a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel, to highlight the risks of a merger between Areva and Alstom. In a press release entitled "Areva has a future at Erlangen", the metalworkers Union said, in autumn 2007: "the success of the collaboration between Areva and Siemens and the excellent level of Erlangen site must weigh in the balance for the future of Areva.".

Affective dimension

For the moment, order books are filled, nuclear power is experiencing a renaissance and sites do not have to fight for their jobs. That will be if the situation turns in nuclear power, without the guarantee that gave the Siemens presence in the capital Konrad Beugel, Assistant to the Finance of the city of Erlangen, is expressed not worried "short term". "". "But it is true that we prefer where the shareholder is on the spot," he added.

And then there is the emotional dimension. A dimension that could weigh in the balance if, tomorrow, Siemens launched in head-on competition in nuclear power and trying to demobilise the best experts of its expartner. About 40 of the employees of Areva NP in Germany are the elders of Siemens, company where it was often throughout his career. "Some had worked for thirty years, then, of course, they are still attached," explains Reinhart Mehn.