Paris, 15 December 2006 – Gaz de France hereby reiterates the measures it has taken to answer the requests of the Paris Court of Appeal, which, in its judgement of 21 November 2006, stated the terms of the European Works Council's (EWC) consultation process on the proposed merger between Gaz de France and Suez:

• on the one hand, transmitting to the EWC of the consolidated accounts as at January 2006 and the written conformation of the responses to the questions posed by the workers' representatives at the meetings on 15 and 16 November
• on the other hand, in the ten days following the remittance of the expert report on the evaluation of the impact of the merger on the employment in the Services division, the EWC is to call a meeting

 Gaz de France has taken the necessary action to ensure that the process is duly respected:

• The written answers to the EWC's questions and requests for financial information were transmitted to the members of the EWC in 7 spoken languages on 8 December. These will be the subject of debate at the next session of the EWC, which will meet on 21 December, 
• With regards to the expert report requested by the EWC, Gaz de France has transmitted the following information to the EWC's mandated consultancies:

- Already, as of 1 December, approximately 2,500 pages of documentation in response the experts' questions

- On 7 December, additional documentation responding to requests for  information made to Gaz de France on 4 December

- On 15 December, specific documents requested from Suez 

In accordance with their request, the experts have also been received by the management of Gaz de France, Suez and the two group's Services divisions.

These elements respond to the entirety of the questions asked by the experts which should allow them to fully carry out a thorough evaluation. 

The expert report is expected on 22 December. It will be translated in to 6 languages and transmitted to the employee representatives so that a consultative meeting can be held at the beginning of January 2007.

Press contact
Jérôme Chambin
Telephone: 00 33 1 47 54 24 35
Email: Jerome.chambin@gazdefrance.com

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