Établissement public à caractère industriel et commercial

An établissement public à caractère industriel et commercial (EPIC; lit. 'public institution of an industrial and commercial nature') is, in France, a category of public undertaking. It includes state-controlled entities of an industrial or commercial nature, including some research institutes and infrastructure operators. Some former French colonies, such as Algeria, Burkina Faso and Mauritania also use this term for such agencies.

EPICs were first recognized as a specific form of public agencies by the Court of Arbitration's (French: Tribunal des conflits) case law in 1921.^[1] In accordance with Article 34 of the French Constitution, they can only be created by a law. Not every company whose capital is held by the state or a state-owned entity is an EPIC. An EPIC is under special laws which do not apply to enterprises under private company law, even if the capital of those companies is held by the state.

List of EPICs

Current

Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs (Andra)
Airport Basel-Mulhouse
Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA), the energy research agency
CNES, the French government space agency
BRGM, the French geological survey
Centre Scientifique et Technique du Batiment (CSTB), the scientific and technical centre for building^[2]
Ifremer, "Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer", an oceanographic institute
Institut de radioprotection et de sûreté nucléaire, (IRSN) the French institute for radioprotection and nuclear safety
Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais, a standards laboratory
Monnaie de Paris, the French mint authority
ONF, the national forestry service
ONERA, the aerospace laboratory
CIRAD, Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement, Agricultural Development Centre
Opéra national de Paris
Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP), the operator of the Paris Métro and other public transport in Paris
Réseau ferré de France (RFF), the national railway infrastructure company
Réseau Ferré National (RFN).
Voies navigables de France (VNF), the inland waterways authority
ENSCI-Les Ateliers, an industrial design school

Former EPICs

Former public service operations which have been turned into companies governed by private law include:

Aéroports de Paris (ADP)
EDF, the national electricity company
GDF, the national gas company
Seita, the former tobacco monopoly
Société nationale des chemins de fer français, the national railway network (name remains the same with no "S.A." suffix added)