Statement of EnBW in response to the claims made by former EnBW CEO Gerhard Goll in the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper on August 26, 2003

Karlsruhe. EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG would like to make the following statement in response to the interview with Gerhard Goll, the former CEO of EnBW, published in the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper dated August 26, 2003 and the claims contained therein:

1. EnBW has no knowledge of any obligations of Electricité de France (EDF) towards EnBW that have not been met. The documentation available to the company provides no indications of this whatever.
2. In response to Goll's claim that EnBW had attempted to obtain pledged funds since the year 2000 and had repeatedly been consoled with the promise of provision of funds at a later date, it should be noted that EDF's acquisition of a holding in EnBW was not approved under the relevant antitrust legislation by the EU Commission until February 2001 and that EDF did not become a shareholder of EnBW until March 2001.
3. At no time did EnBW request EDF to play a role in financing the acquisition of Neckarwerke Stuttgart (NWS).
4. EnBW considers Gerhard Goll's role in helping to make strategic partner EDF a major shareholder to be one of his finest achievements and finds it regrettable that Goll himself should retrospectively call this achievement into question.
5. In recent weeks, EnBW has refrained from blaming any party for the unexpected losses that were recorded in the first half of 2003; the Group explicitly distances itself from unfounded or incorrect speculations concerning individual aspects of the burdens on earnings.
6. EnBW distances itself from all attempts to direct accusations at or shift blame to the shareholders. There are no grounds whatever for criticism of the shareholders of EnBW in this matter. In contrast, however, EnBW shareholders had and have the right to voice clear criticism of the situation on the earnings front.
7. None of the "legacy burdens" that place a burden on the first-half earnings for 2003 are connected either logically or factually with the criticisms levelled at EDF by Gerhard Goll. Consequently, even the attempt to suggest that EDF is in some way responsible for the situation that arose in the first half of 2003 is totally unsupported by evidence of whatever kind.
8. EnBW does not wish to make any further comments on the various claims made by Gerhard Goll.