Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good afternoon. We have the pleasure to be here all together for the shareholders' general meeting for this month at the Maison de la Mutualité. I would like to thank all the shareholders who has joined us here in this room. I would also like to thank people who voted remotely and people who are online with us right now and who are following us online. Here with me, Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO. Claude Laruelle, in charge of finance, digital, and procurement. Helman le Pas de Sécheval, Secretary General of Veolia and Secretary of the Board of Directors. I would like to suggest to start our shareholders' general meeting. I will ask Helman le Pas de Sécheval to tell us about the legal formalities. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good afternoon. A few minutes for the introduction of this shareholders' general meeting, chaired by Mr. Antoine Frérot. The mixed general meeting was convened today, 27th of April 2024, Article 22 of our bylaws. Proper notice has been given. Published at the mandatory legal publications and notice, a letter has been sent to the shareholders. On the desk, well, you have two boxes. You have the bylaws, you have the notices, you have the copy of the letter sent to the shareholders and the auditors. We also have the list of attendance. I will tell you the definitive final attendance list later. We received the list and proxies, the auditors' reports, and a copy of the documents that are available for the shareholders at the company's headquarters. All documents have been given in accordance with bylaws and applicable regulations online in the dedicated Page. We are not going to read all of the reports. I am now going to read you the agenda of the shareholders' general meeting. The Board of Directors noticed in the context of the dialogue with its partners, that too many shareholders may be following a vote agency, are reluctant to consolidate Veolia's purpose in its bylaws by investing the board of directors, which is the most legitimate or representative body, with the entire responsibility that he already has on this purpose. The board of directors has made the decision to remove Resolution 22, which suggested to modify the bylaws regarding Veolia's purpose. This Resolution, number two2, is taken out of the agenda. Regarding, first of all, Resolutions that have to do with the ordinary general meeting, Resolution 1 to 18 have to do with the approval of the statutory financial statement, No. 1. No. 2, approval of the consolidated accounts for financial year 2022. Approval of spends, spendings and expenses under Article 39.4. We also have Resolution No. 4. You have the name of each resolution in your documents. Resolution No. 5. Resolution No. 6, the renewal of some Directors. Mr. Olivier Andriès, for example. That was Resolution 7. Resolution No. 8 for Ms. Véronique Bédague, Director. Resolution No. 9 for Mr. Francisco Reynés as a Director. Renewal for Ernst & Young and others for the auditors. That's Resolution No. 10. Voting on the compensation during 2022 for Mr. Antoine Frérot as Chairperson. The vote on the compensation as Chairman of the Board, July 2022 to December 2022. That's Resolution No. 12. You have Resolution No. 13. Reading the Resolution. You then have Resolution No. 14. You also have Resolution No. 15, the compensation policy of the Chairman of the Board. Resolution number one6, same for the CEO. Resolution number one7. Resolution number one8. Regarding the Resolutions that have to do with the extraordinary general meeting, it's Resolutions 19 to 21. Once again, reading Resolutions 19 to 21. Reading Resolution 20. Reading Resolution 20. Finally, reading Resolution 21. As I announced, the Resolution 22 has been removed from the agenda. We finish with Resolution 23. Regarding the bureau of this general meeting, in line with the bylaws and applicable regulations, our scrutineers are Ms. Floriane Rigourd, representing Amundi, and Mr. Jean-Yves Jouan-Auzeby, who represents the employee shareholders. Those two shareholders have the largest number of shares and accept to be scrutineers. Thank you very much. I will be the secretary of the bureau for this general meeting. The discussions are public and this general meeting is being recorded. It is broadcast on the company's website. Several non-shareholders are attending, such as journalists and an ministerial representative, making sure that the shareholder meeting is running smoothly. By law, the mixed shareholders general meeting can or is duly constituted when there is at least a quarter of the shareholders with a right to vote, so 175 million, 540 million, 392 shareholder shares. Shareholders present or represented have reached a pro-preliminary quorum. 530,000. 530,413,000, et cetera. 73.47% of representation. It's higher than the required quarter. Therefore, this meeting is duly constituted and can proceed with the business outlined in the agenda for ordinary or extraordinary general meeting items. Mr. Chair, you now have the floor. Thank you, Armand. Ladies and gentlemen, I now ask Philippe Dessertine, who's an economist and chair of the 21 committee. Comité 21, the French Committee for Sustainable Development. I give him the floor just after a short video. The planet is still out of breath. Nothing new. Greenhouse gas emissions are at record levels and growing. The commitment to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees is nearly going up in smoke. Without further action, we are headed to a 2.8 degree increase. The rest of us have to reform these international institutions so that the people of this world can say, “We are now in charge of our own destiny.” In fact, one thing has changed. We need an investment revolution. Now, determination is leading the way. Now, laws are enacted. The Green Deal agenda is more than 50 legislations that we are changing. We're firmly on track to finalize all legislation to deliver our climate target by the end of this year. Now, money is on the table. I committed to work with our Congress to quadruple U.S. support to climate finance and provide $11 billion annually by 2024. The European Green Deal is on one hand about cutting emissions, but on the other hand, about creating jobs and boosting innovation. At least $3 trillion in sustainable investments are set to reach climate neutrality by 2050, and to fund research and solutions. Millions of people, trained scientists and amateurs, governments and innovators, citizens and companies are looking for ideas. Now, change is happening. The world is acting and moving faster. Now, the world is ready. Now, let's talk solutions. Hello, everyone. I am delighted to be here with you today. Climate change? Based on those two terrifying words, can we have an optimistic discourse? The answer is yes, and I think we should say it and repeat it to younger generations, to kids that you have at home saying, "Where are we heading? What is going to be our future?" The answer is yes, because if we sum it up, climate change is what? What? Is it an economic model, a business plan created in the entire world starting in the Second World War, something that's not working with 8 billion inhabitants. We've gone beyond 8 billion. That happened last year. Things were working at 7 billion already. The number of inhabitants we had in 2000 didn't work. It didn't work at 5 billion. What does this mean? Is there a solution that's not the one? It's unthinkable would be to reduce world population. World population continues to rise, but the major stakes are to change our economic model. I say change, I think transformation that's written here is very important. We are no longer only in a transition, because that allowed people to think that we had tweaks to provide to the older model. Maybe that could be envisaged by people in the West or actually the richest on the planet. What we need now is a model to apply to the entire planet, to allow poorer countries to have a radiant future in a preserved environment. What is a poor country? Very simple. It's a country where the life expectancy is much lower than in the richest countries. To give you an example, the most populated country in Africa, Nigeria, in 2050 will be the third most inhabited country in the world, has a life expectancy of 53 years. In France, our life expectancy is 82. This fundamental inequality does not allow us today to think that the planet is going to be peaceful in the future. We have to have an 82-year life expectancy for the entire world. We have to transform our model. We have to change our model. Not just to reduce greenhouse gases here in the West. We know here in the West that we are responsible for most of what's happening today in climate change. This also means an economic model to allow a new type of growth. Growth isn't just to consume more. Growth is to allow humans to live to a ripe old age and to live better. That's the challenge we have in front of us today. When I mention that challenge, maybe you're thinking, "Well, how is it that I'm being optimist? When is it optimist?" Well, to change this model, actually, this isn't just words. It's not a perspective. It's actually something that has already started. I think that that's the idea that has to be fronted. We are already changing our model, our economic model. It's our production model, our consumption model, but also just the way we live our lifestyles. How do you change the economic model? Historically, it's something that hasn't happened very often. It's something that happens, first of all, when you have new conditions stemming from scientific progress. I believe that when you want to be optimistic today, I think first of all, you have to see that science over the past 20 years, science has undergone unbelievably positive changes. All scientists in the world... I come from a soft science, which is economics, but I've met with a lot of very important scientists who are young or old, mathematicians, physicians, physicists, chemists. All of them, all the major scientific leaders around the world today are saying, "What's happening in my field, I didn't think I would see that in my lifetime." We're optimistic because we're changing our economic model and because this is enabled by science. It is absolutely certain that reducing growth is not possible. The solution isn't going to be to go backwards. We have to invent a new model, and science will enable this, and at least to envisage it. To change our model, this also means having the world population believing in this change of changing the model. You cannot change your economic model, and here history shows it without doubt. You cannot change an economic model because you have to, because it's being imposed, because somebody ordered you to do it. 8 billion people, and soon more, will be changing their economic model because they believe it will improve their lives. I think that changing the economic model little by little and more and more quickly, this is entering the mindsets of most of our contemporaries all over the world. We do have to mention that providential tragedy, if I may say, which was the lockdown and the pandemic. The lockdown and the pandemic. Well, for the world population, all of a sudden everybody realized that actually we could end our previous models. In just a few days, weeks, months, you can actually start doing things differently. For the world population, doing so at the same time, well, that shows that this new model can be the start of a new way of life, which is much more attractive. The world population has now integrated this idea. Old people, young people. Today, maybe when it will be time to recruit, and I'm speaking of you, Veolia, but also for me, when I'm looking to recruit researchers in my field, we have to talk about how we are changing our model. Recruiting today, it's usually the recruiter who speaks because they now have to convince the person, they have to woo the candidate. For them, it's important that this change in model be perceptible. The world population has now integrated this reasoning. The world economy is also learning it very quickly. 2023 is certainly an important date because from the beginning of the year, in many areas around the world, especially in Europe, legislation is translating what this change in model is. This means that the economic values are changing as well. Obviously, we will continue to be producing for other humans, and that's what we will be looking at. The way in which we produce will also be a way of creating value or preventing its destruction. The indicators of impact, this is a notion we didn't have 10 or even five years ago. Since indicators of impact of how we produce will become the origin of value creation. This has to be absolutely demonstrated in a rational manner. If I can demonstrate that I am behaving virtuously, then one can consider that my value is increasing. Not just my financial value, that's obviously still there, but a complementary value. A value which can grow at an incredible speed, but which can also decrease incredibly quickly if it should turn out that the way I am operating isn't in keeping with this change of model, which I've just mentioned. Currently, what we see is a new way of calculating GDP in the future, of evaluating creation of value in the future. When we talk about growth, it won't be the same type of growth, and it has already begun. Namely, in the yearly reports of investors more and more are ensuring that their investments are going towards this change in model. If this investment is going to flow to the old model, well, the share price will go down. If it's being channeled toward this new economic model, well, the value goes up. We have to accelerate this new model that science is creating. Science is creating a new type of wealth creation. To give you just one example, it's so striking, it's that of the term which is ChatGPT. This is something that all over the world people are hearing. Whereas in November 2022, it was just an idea coming out of a research lab seven months ago. In January, it was worth over $30 billion, and today, $200 billion-$300 billion. Who knows, actually, because it's accelerated value creation. This is demonstrating a new way of doing business. I think the term Veolia was created exactly 20 years ago. I think that when we're talking about this new world, we can feel enthusiastic, but simply regret, as in my case, to not be 20 years old in 2023, because the best is ahead of us. Thank you. Thank you very much, Philippe. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, it is a great pleasure for me to be with you today. A great pleasure for at least three reasons. The first is that it allows me to report to you on the commitments I made to you regarding the merger with Suez. I made commitments to you, but also to the employees of Suez, to the public authorities, and to elected representatives. I made this commitment that there would be no job cuts. This commitment has been upheld despite the headwinds that Veolia had to face again after the pandemic: inflation, geopolitical uncertainties, and the return of war. Not only have we not destroyed any jobs, but we continue to create new jobs in France and elsewhere because of our growth-generating businesses, our ability to constantly provide new solutions to the problems linked to the ecological transformation, and because now of our much broader geographical footprint, much broader since the merger. Ladies and gentlemen, Veolia now has 220,000 employees on all five continents who every day solve problems in the fight against pollution, against the depletion of natural resources, and the production of renewable energy. I also made a commitment that competition in France, particularly in the water sector, would remain strong. It is, in fact, lively, judging by the many forms of competition, more lively than ever in which the companies in our industry are engaged. In the last few weeks alone, the examples of Montpellier, Nice, Lille, Perpignan, Auxerre, Strasbourg speak volumes. I made another commitment, the commitment that the new Suez would have the means for long-term development with solid and responsible accountable shareholders. This was not only a moral imperative, it was also because it is in Veolia's interest to have solid competitors in its home country so that it can be particularly competitive in all the world's markets where foreign competitors are increasingly numerous and ambitious. This commitment has also been kept because the new management of Suez announced a few months ago that its shareholders would double their investments compared with the period before the merger in line, in passing with their initial commitments. Finally, I made the commitment that Suez employees who were destined to, and who wished to join Veolia would be treated in a brotherly way and fairly. It is so true that today no one can even tell who comes from Veolia and who comes from Suez. The company is totally unified. I will continue to monitor and report to you on the implementation of these various commitments, and I will also continue to remind you of them since Veolia's word was questioned at the time of the merger. May whoever was skeptic at the time acknowledge this now. The second reason why I'm happy to be with you today is that it allows me to tell you what my new duties have led me to observe. I am no longer an executive officer of Veolia, I can now talk to you about its managers in complete freedom. I would like to tell you explicitly how Veolia is in good hands. Estelle's hands, first of all, who is doing so well that I believe she has exceeded the expectations of even her most fervent supporters. Well done, Estelle, for this first year at the helm. The headwinds could do nothing, the trajectory did not deviate. With you, the team that surrounds you to embody this new chapter in the history of the world champion of ecological transformation looks absolutely great. The speed and quality of the integration of the teams that have joined us, the business achievements throughout the world, the resistance to economic headwinds, even their turn their transformation into opportunities. The tons of toxic waste treated, the volumes of plastics recycled, the tons of CO2 emissions avoided, the number or the level of commitment of all of our employees, the number of hours of training of all our employees, the success of our employee shareholder operations. Finally, as a result, the economic and financial performance of your group bear witness to this in all dimensions of our business. Veolia is useful, this is why it is prosperous. Because it is useful to the greatest number of people, it is prosperous for a long time to come. The third reason why I'm pleased to be here today is because you are among the first as Veolia shareholders to support a company that wanted to find its purpose, to give itself a purpose. Four years later, you can see that this was anything but empty words. We have moved away from a historical industrial paradigm of adding complementary businesses to embrace our mission as the world leader of ecological transformation. At a time when climate change, the depletion of natural resources, or the loss of biodiversity are the main challenges of the 21st century, Veolia has taken up the fight. Against all the pessimists, the catastrophists, the millenarians, and the survivalists, Veolia has put itself in order of battle, so to speak, to build a desirable future. I know that the notion of a desirable future is particularly dear to Estelle's heart, to her's, as I've heard her say it very often. I'm convinced that she's right. The magnitude of the changes that we must collectively as individuals, citizens, companies, shareholders, employees, consumers, voters take on board and address the magnitude of this transformation is such that it is illusory to hope to achieve it if the future is no longer desirable. This is the meaning of what Philippe Dessertine just told us. The planet does not have one single enemy, pollution. It has at least a second one, resignation, despondency. It is to combat this resignation that we must clear the way for a desirable future. Let me tell you what a desirable future is for Veolia. It is a cleaner planet. A more sober use of natural resources. It is also a more inclusive society. It is also a more prosperous world. It is not always easy to aim for such a course when you have to show the way. That is why you need a compass that always points north. At Veolia, our north is called usefulness. It is because a company is useful that it is successful and not the other way around. This north is determined by considering economic, financial, industrial, environmental, social, and societal issues as a coherent whole in the service of all stakeholders and with the same degree of rigor for each of these issues. It is never the easiest path and rarely the fastest, I'll give you that. It is the only way that leads us to sustainable prosperity, and therefore, the only path worth taking. The wider the usefulness pursued, the longer the prosperity obtained. Many of you have been with us for many years now, you know that what enabled Veolia to successfully achieve this merger with Suez, which was considered impossible, or to overcome COVID in just a few months to achieve all the objectives of the Impact 2023 program, or to smoothly implement a change in structural governance, is this compass, this imperative of usefulness, which is embedded in all employees' mindset. We have detailed this usefulness in the context of the work carried out on our purpose, I would like to thank Louis Schweitzer for having chaired the committee that was the linchpin of this work. I would like to seize this opportunity to thank Louis Schweitzer more broadly and more deeply for all the years, the 20 years that he has dedicated to us at the board of directors, as vice chairman and chairman of several of the board's committees. Ladies and gentlemen, Louis has spent more years at the heart of Veolia than he has spent at the heart of Renault. He has been instrumental on several occasions in ensuring the coherence, stability, and development of Veolia, whether during the difficult years from 2012 - 2014, you might remember this. His level-headedness during the merger with Suez. His experience and his caring, uncompromising, rigorous approach have enabled us to turn Veolia around, to transform it, and then to project it into a promising and desirable future. For all this, my dear Louis, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I would also like to thank Clara Gaymard for the eight years that she spent with us and for helping us, namely, to decipher in advance the main changes, the main developments in the companies we work with. Thank you, Clara. I would also like to thank all the directors of our group who tirelessly question, guide, encourage the company's teams and who support me in my task. Finally, I would like to introduce the three new members of our board who will join us if you approve their appointments. The care taken in selecting them meets the wishes that you expressed. More international experience and culture and expertise. Expertise through practice of the executive functions of large companies. Véronique Bédague, Olivier Andriès, and Francisco Reynés, whose profiles and careers were detailed in the documentation provided to the shareholders, are in line with these wishes. I am convinced that all three will make a valuable contribution to the work of our board and its committees. This purpose, ladies and gentlemen, which I presented to you four years ago, is therefore not a theoretical exercise nor a footnote. It is an instrument that permeates all of the group's businesses and activities at every level. I know that Estelle Brachlianoff, Claude Laruelle, and Laurent Obadia will each have the opportunity to talk about this during this general meeting. What better proof could there be that our purpose is really the backbone of our company? By definition, this work is never finished. It deserves to be constantly reviewed, corrected, improved. We wanted to be able to put it in a more concise, more striking, more impactful, more intelligible way. It is by letting you discover the quintessence of our purpose in a short and therefore more easily memorable version that I'm going to close my introduction. I invite you to be the bearers and ambassadors of this message to make better known what is nothing less than the soul of Veolia, what brings us together, what unites us, what gives us the strength to move mountains and to be truly actors of human progress. Thank you for your attention. Ecological transformation means acting to reconcile human progress and environmental protection. We develop and implement locally solutions to depollute our vital resources and preserve them from depletion. Solutions to decarbonize our ways of living and producing, and adapt them to the consequences of climate change. All over the world, attuned to local cultures, we strive to improve the health and quality of life of communities. At Veolia, we tackle economic, social, and environmental issues as an inseparable whole to the benefit of the largest number of people. Ecological transformation. That is our purpose. I now give the floor to our CEO. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, dear Antoine, thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for always having been here. Thank you for being here with us and to contribute to the success of the ecological transformation which is incarnated by Veolia. Since we're not a company like any other, you're obviously not shareholders like any other. I think that for you, the why is as important as the how much. Antoine Frérot reminded us just now, the more useful we are, the more prosperous we are. Judging by the results of these last few years, our usefulness has grown considerably. Your company is solid, our compass is clear, and it's certainly because I know that I can count on a board with enormous experience and very high quality. I could not dream of a better chairman of the board than Antoine Frérot. Every day, he demonstrates this. He is at the service of the collective success of our company. Here, too, Antoine is also not a chairman like any other. As I was saying, this company is solid. Let me give you a few figures. Our turnover in 2022 increased by 50%, and 14% of that could not be attributed to our merger with Suez. After COVID, Veolia once again demonstrated its ability to adapt to all situations, even the return of war to the gates of Europe and the return of inflation that went along with it. Our EBITDA grew by 7.2% above and beyond buying Suez to reach EUR 6.2 billion. Our net results for the very first time went beyond EUR 1 billion and is now at EUR 1.162 billion. These figures speak for themselves. They say how Veolia has become a high-performing company. Quarter after quarter, it provides excellent results like a well-oiled clock or rather like a company which is well-piloted and has the capacity to act. The results of our Impact 2023 program shows that we have reached all of our objectives one year ahead of schedule. Perspectives for this year are therefore extremely positive. We'll be able to seize opportunities that might come along, and we can confirm for 2023 that we have very ambitious guidance in terms of volume and results, with the growth of EBITDA between 5% and 7% and net results around the EUR 1.3 billion. These excellent results for your company, just as our perspectives, have allowed us to increase dividends for 2022 to EUR 1.12 per share. These elements are also a very good response to those who thought that our merger with Suez might destroy value or slow down our progress. That's the exact opposite which is happening. Judge for yourselves. Quantitatively, the synergies are ahead of our program. Not only are we the world leader by far, but also we are among the Top 3 in most countries where we have activities. We've now found a very agreeable geographic balance with 40% of our turnover in France, 20% in France, 40% in Europe outside of France, and 40% in the rest of the world. We also have a very fine balance of professions: water, waste, and energy. Local decarbonizing energy, which is already worth EUR 10 billion in turnover. The success of our merger isn't just in figures. It's first and foremost qualitative. It's operational. It's human. Our new colleagues. 40,000 of them who joined us just over a year ago, massively shown that they had found a place in our new organization. They show this every day. Whether through results of our yearly engagement survey or the employee shareholder schemes, we have not been able to distinguish between former and recent colleagues. They are all mobilized for the success of our project. We have 2 x more patents for cleaning water. What better answer to that for all of those who are afraid that 1 + 1 would be less than 2? What's true today will be even more so tomorrow. We are in the process of co-constructing our new strategic program for 2024, 2027 with our nearly 220,000 collaborators, and also with all of our stakeholders. I won't be giving anything away by saying that we are the best placed in the world to seize opportunities on the market of the ecological transformation. Our know-how, our geographical spread, are a combination that has no equivalent. For all of our businesses, we can count on a half dozen of strong positions in the world of infrastructure, which is essential and even irreplaceable, as we saw during COVID. That we can then leverage to deploy the growth associated with these new challenges. Looking, for example, at our municipal water activities, our position in the U.S., in France, in Chile, in Spain, and in the Czech Republic, is that of a provider of essential services. Our spread allows us to finance the levers for growth and innovation and to fight against new pollutants and recycling wastewater. For waste, it's the same. In France here, but also in the U.K., in Germany, in Australia, these are bases where we are creating new frontiers, producing different types of fuel, using non-recyclable waste, inventing new ways to recycle plastic or solar panels. It is also thanks to our unique position as world leader in processing toxic waste, first of all in Europe and then in the United States, that we have been able to create a network which is unique in the world. We have presence on all continents. The end of 2022, we won a major contract in the Emirates to process the toxic waste from the Al Ruwais refinery, the largest in the Middle East, a contract worth EUR 1.2 billion. Our strategy for the coming years, which I will have the honor to present in more detail when the time is right, will thus consist in accelerating wherever we can to improve our impact, to preserve and even strengthen the unique dimension of Veolia and what allows us to make a difference at the service of our clients and the group's growth. We'll be accelerating our growth in energy, but in the local and decarbonated sense of the term. We'll also be accelerating our growth in technologies and new innovative solutions. For example, to have the means to recycle the entire life cycle of certain minerals, for example, lithium, from the mine all the way to recycling batteries. As you can see, we are the most beautiful actor of the most beautiful market in the world. EUR 500 trillion- EUR 2.5 trillion, which is also seeing accelerated growth. The results are here, the balances have been found, the potential for growth is growing every day. In terms of results and economic forecasts, all is well. In most annual meetings, people would only talk about that and stop there, that is just half of the issue. Neither our results nor our objectives are simply financial. There's another series of results that I am just as proud of. In 2022, we contributed to eliminating 14 million tons of CO2, removing them from the carbon trajectories of our clients. We erased 14 million round trip tickets between Paris and New York. We erased the carbon footprint of more than 140 billion hours of streaming on internet. This is gigantic. How did we do it? Opening up new plants for plastic recycling. This corresponds to 75% of carbon saved, or by replacing at Solvay in Lorraine coal by non-recyclable waste. In 2022, we saved and helped our clients save more than 300 million cubic meters of water. This is the equivalent of the yearly consumption in the department just north of here or The country of Singapore. This is huge, more importantly, we discovered last year in France, but it was also already true for many other countries, we have developed solutions for sobriety for cities and for industries in Chile and California and Spain. Water is a precious resource, just as we talk about net zero in carbon, we should also probably be talking about a net zero for water. This is exactly what our technology and our unique know-how bring to our customers. It's our technologies which made it possible for the Talison mine in Australia to double their capacity without having to use a single drop of additional water, thanks to a combination between our unique patented technologies, active flow membranes and crystallization. I am particularly happy that we've also renewed the wonderful contract for distributing water in the city of Lille in a very innovative form because it's actually a sobriety contract where we help inhabitants save water and use less. In 2022, we confirmed through actions our investment trajectory, so that by 2030 we can completely replace the few coal-fired power plants that we inherited from our historic activities in Europe. It would have been so much easier to just sell them, they would have continued to emit CO2, this is not how we do things at Veolia. We don't push anything under the rug. We assume we invest EUR 1.5 billion by 2030, we decarbonize. Not tomorrow, but today. We are well ahead of everybody on this. A few weeks ago in Braunschweig, we were able to replace a coal-fired power plant by biomass, reducing the carbon footprint twofold. These ecological results are just as important as our economic results. These are what make us useful, and this is also what makes our employees happy to work for us. We reached record levels in 2022. 89% of our employees said that they felt like they were making a concrete contribution to finding solutions to climate change. What other major corporation can say that they've been able to translate their company purpose into actions so convincingly? Just imagine the efficiency, the productivity, the creativity of more than 220,000 people who go to work every day with the certainty that they are being useful to the entire society. The secret of Veolia is there, and it's actually not a secret because this is how we measure our actions on a daily basis. Our company purpose is to contribute to human progress, and this progress concretely depends every instant a little more on our capacity to decarbonize our societies, depollute our environments, and regenerate natural resources. This is the singularity of Veolia and the strength of our solutions. Human progress defended by Veolia is a progress turned towards the future, but which makes progress with less and less carbon, less and less water, less and less extraction of raw materials, less and less pollution. We have actually quite a very simple project: to do more with less. This is what I call the ecology of solutions. It is this growing need of our clients for solutions to decarbonate, to depollute, which are the basis for our growth of today and tomorrow. Mistakes are being shared more and more broadly, and there are more and more calls for acceleration in this area. The ecology of solutions is an ecology of doing and not saying, which brings together rather than dividing, which enables rather than prevents. It's an ecology that doesn't sort between good and bad, but between those taking actions and those remaining passive. It's an ecology in movement which consists in greening and not just being interested in what's already green. The goal is not to give lessons, but to bring solutions. This entails work, effort, because these solutions have to be concrete, they have to be affordable, and they have to be replicable for transformation, for improvement. This ecology implies looking at our businesses and our activities differently, thinking about our clients, but also our clients' clients. What positive impact can we have on their health by removing pollution from the air, providing cleaner water. That's how the group was born 170 years ago this year to provide pure water to populations and protect them from epidemics that had been identified by Pasteur. Now we're talking about air pollution, soil pollution, new types of pollutants that we all have to process for our own health. Also, there's a question of sovereignty over rare metals, over energy, and Veolia is a promoter of independence. When waste becomes mines, where we can find lithium, cobalt, nickel, biogas, well, then the constraints of importing these to far countries disappears. The ecology of solutions is, I believe, the only way towards a more sustainable and desirable society. Resignation or restrictions are not a project for society. Tomorrow's world can be desirable, but only on condition that we do more with less. That we show the way, as we're doing it on the industrial sites in France and elsewhere. It's with this mindset that we look at the performance of our company and our employees, and this can only be multifaceted. It's not just our share price, but also the impact that we have on all of our stakeholders. In the five different directions that Claude will be presenting in detail in just a few minutes. You've heard our financial performances have gone over our objectives. Our commercial performances are the driver of this. Every year, we have a poll of our clients to know whether they're satisfied with our services and whether they would recommend us to others. Our Net Promoter Score is progressing every year to reach very high levels. Because we are not going to rest on our laurels, I've announced during the Capital Market Day last March, that we intend to double our efforts for innovation to provide ever more solutions for our clients. Because it is thanks to eight years of efforts that we were able to find how we could extract the metals in used batteries that are now being used in two factories in France and in China. It's the efforts of today that will allow us to find out how tomorrow we can produce green fuel for aviation. I presented our environmental performance, the service of our clients. These are excellent. I'm sure you've understood, we are very proud of our social performance as well. This has always been a priority for Veolia. We now have the care program for our workers everywhere in the world. Veolia provides a shared foundation for social welfare at crucial times in life, even in countries where nothing is provided for by law. Now there are 10 weeks of maternity leave, 1 leave of co-parents leave, health insurance, and the possibility of taking time off to help someone in your immediate family. If they were worried about the impact of our merger with Suez would have on this, well, they can rest assured. In conformity with what we had announced, the merger with Suez improved the commitment of all. 89% of our employees said that they understand the impact of their work and their contribution to the ecological transformation. 80% would recommend what a person close to them to join Veolia. More than 40,000 shareholders bought shares in the employee shareholder scheme, making them the foremost group of shareholders in the group, they are our ambassadors. That is why we are drafting a new version of our company purpose to make it shorter and easier to remember. Our societal performance gives meaning to our activities. This is part of our impact on local territories in all of the cities where we have presence. We create jobs and local wealth. It's also a reflection which is carried out for the future with the creation of the School of Ecological Transformation. Laurent Obadia will talk to you about this in a few minutes. These five performances are the five pillars of Veolia's trajectory at the service of human progress. They feed my pride, I'm also a little bit frustrated, I have to say. The reality of these performances make us one of the world leaders in ESG. What other company has erased the emission of so many tons of CO2, preserved so many cubic meters of water, has developed so many ways of decarbonating energy? Yet, ESG rankings do not do us justice for a simple but absurd reason. They take into account the environmental impact of our clients. If our clients have high emission rates, well, then our grade goes down. It's just it's because we work with companies that have high emissions that we can have such a strong impact on these emissions. I am fully determined to fight this injustice, against your company, and I'm counting on you to help me. Dear Veolia shareholders, it is this fighting spirit, fighting against fatality, against resignation, against catastrophism, against climate change, against soil pollution, air pollution, water pollution, that makes the difference, that Veolia's teams do wherever they are and whatever it is they do. We're not here to accept the world as it is, but to change it with our clients and for our children. The better we do at this, the more prosperous we will be. This is why there is no more beautiful company to work for than Veolia, and Veolia is the only one that's up to the job. I will see you on the 29th of February, 2024 to present our new strategic program, and I will let Claude Laruelle tell you about what really makes our strength and our pride. Thank you very much for your presence. People around the world are concerned about the climate crisis. They expect solutions that are effective, accessible, and benefit everyone. They're ready to make changes to bring about a regenerated, low pollution, low carbon world. They are ready to make the world more sustainable. Their vision is our ambition. Having successfully integrated the Suez business lines, developed a strong capacity for innovation, and extended our geographic footprint, Veolia is now positioned as the world champion, able to realize the promise of ecological transformation, to tackle climate change and enhance energy sovereignty. To respond to the increasing scarcity of resources and reduce tension in strategic supply chains. To prevent and tackle pollution and improve people's quality of life and health. Take a deep dive into ecological transformation around the world. An epic journey of possibility with solutions which are already everywhere. Innovations, which are key to human progress. Women and men who are building and inventing the world of tomorrow. By their side, we are decarbonizing. Let's travel to Brazil. There we transform their waste management sites into environmental parks. The circular solutions and technologies used cut methane emissions generated by urban and organic waste decomposition and produce renewable energy locally. Let's now stop off in Germany, where we are applying solutions to replace coal with biomass, a renewable green source of energy. The new plant will use a mix of biomass and gas, cutting its CO2 emissions by 50%. Next destination, Dombasle-sur-Meurthe, France, where our team worked with Solvay to develop an industrial unit to replace coal with solid recovered fuel made from non-recyclable residual waste to power the Solvay facility using clean energy. This project will reduce the facility's carbon footprint by half every year. All around Europe, we are working to improve energy efficiency. Our Flexcity solution helps our partners to consume less or to shift the electricity consumption to optimal times. It is the solution to adjust and optimize consumption, helping to secure electricity supply and decarbonizing the energy mix. Let's continue our journey, this time on our way to save and regenerate resources. Here in Finland, we launched the world's largest biorefinery project, producing biomethanol from a pulp mill. This solution increases the reserve of biofuels and enhances the energy independence of the region by producing more sustainable energy to replace fossil fuels. On the other side of the globe, in Indonesia, we find an example of a groundbreaking complete service offer, PlastiLoop, which enables our clients to source high-quality recycled plastic resin from around the world. A partnership with SIP to recycle plastic bottles to produce new containers. Let's now head to Sofia, where the Kubratovo treatment plant treats wastewater and generates more energy than it consumes. The treated wastewater is released into nature, the residual sludge is used as fertilizer for agriculture. A perfect example of successful regeneration. We continue our round the world trip in the United Kingdom, where we keep the streets in the City of Westminster clean and safe and recycle household and commercial waste in an effort to totally eliminate the need to send waste to landfill. In California, West Basin has become a leader in water conservation and recovery, with one of the largest such facilities in the United States. It produces over 150,000 cubic meters of five different water quality grades each day to suit industrial and agricultural needs, as well as replenishing the aquifer. In this drought-affected region, drinking water can be allocated to the daily needs of the population, giving water a second lease of life. Let's now move to another water-stressed region, the Catalan coast, where water resources are predicted to fall 22% by 2050. In response, we have developed various wastewater recovery plants for urban, industrial, and agricultural use. These essential solutions will help make the region more resilient. The last leg of our journey is all about depollution. As a pioneer and primary supplier of hazardous waste management solutions in the Middle East, we work with our partners, Vision Invest and ADQ, to treat hazardous waste in the largest industrial complex in Abu Dhabi. Follow us now to France, where we set up a circular ecosystem to recycle strategic metals used in lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles. This partnership guarantees the life cycle of batteries and furthest progress in mobility. Last stop, back to the U.S., where the Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed new standards for treating chemicals known as PFAS in drinking water. Veolia leads the way in developing, deploying, and operating advanced technology to treat water. In New Jersey alone, where we serve drinking water to more than 1.6 million residents and businesses, PFOS treatment systems have been installed or are in progress at 15 facilities. Decarbonize, save and regenerate, depollute. The solutions are in our hands. Throughout the world, we are improving people's lives to reconcile human progress and environmental protection, to transform today's world into a positive and sustainable world for today and for tomorrow. Ecological transformation, that is our purpose. Thank you for this video, and well done, Estelle. Thank you for your presentation. Moving on with Laurent Obadia, in charge of stakeholders and communication. Thank you, Antoine, and good afternoon, everyone. It looks like there is a common thread that links all the speeches you have heard and will hear today. Working at Veolia is a guarantee to find a meaning in your work. It is an immense opportunity, our responsibility is just as great as our chairman, Antoine Frérot, often says. It is an immense opportunity to work for a company whose purpose is ecological transformation. When you are a Veolia employee, this is what makes you proud to go home and tell your family and friends about your job and your daily life. This pride is the pride to contribute to the main or to the solution of the main challenge of our century. It is also a great responsibility because the success of ecological transformation depends on many other players besides Veolia. Veolia knows how to capture carbon, eliminate methane emissions, reuse our wastewater, recycle rare materials, introduce circularity into a value chain. In short, do more with less. In order to achieve this, public authorities must encourage it. Public and private clients must decide to do it. Citizens must encourage it as well, consumers must finally benefit from it. This has a very concrete, very immediate, and very daily, so to speak, consequence for us. We are convinced of the value of the dialogue with all those around us. Some speak of a never-ending revolution. It's quite fashionable. At Veolia, it's more like a permanent coalition. This is the whole point of the multifaceted performance made in Veolia, which embodies and reflects in the variable part of each people's remuneration, the importance we attach to environmental, social, and societal issues in the same way as the most conventional considerations. Simply put, for Veolia to really maximize its impact on the planet, all the stars have to align. Of course, we are ideally positioned to contribute to this thanks to our geographical footprint, which is the envy of many, and also thanks to... Well, especially after the merger with Suez. Also thanks to our positioning in all the businesses involved in ecological transformation. This implies a permanent effort to listen to all our stakeholders and to convince them to get involved. To implement this, we have critical friends, our dear critical friends. They have a mission. They are here to freely challenge Veolia's management teams to make sure they face their responsibilities as often as they need to be reminded. To prepare our future strategic program, we have launched two initiatives. Number one, we directly involve Veolia's employees. They gave us more than 200,000 ideas. Those ideas already inspire those in charge of drafting this future strategic program. Second, our +1 approach. That is very dear to me. This approach consists of in physically bringing together representatives of all our stakeholders around the same table at every local level in order to anticipate, challenge, align efforts, and maximize our impact. Veolia is an outward-looking company. It is the ambassador of a new way of looking at the economy and a new way of protecting the environment. For the future to become desirable again, in the words of Estelle Brachlianoff, our Chief Executive Officer, some of the rules of the game must change. The cost of pollution must be higher than the cost of cleaning it up. This is the reason why Veolia kindly welcomes, is always vigilant about the no less than 54 legislations adopted or in the process of being adopted by the European Commission in the last six months alone. We chose to be proactive when it comes to ecological transformation to show that people are ready. From now on, we speak very early on. We put forward our expertise. We enter into discussion with public opinion, and we educate the general public. For example, by producing new unique studies such as this great Barometer of Ecological Transformation. Veolia's responsibility is to help build an entire ecosystem of public and private decision-makers, nonprofits, and NGOs, citizens and employees, all working to achieve the same results. We have a mission to convince as well as to industrialize. Our weapons are therefore not only our technological solutions or our industrial know-how, however valuable they may be. Our weapons are also our messages, our testimonies. We are on the front line of the fight against climate change and the depletion of resources. At Veolia, we are convinced that this approach, which does not belong to us, but which characterizes us, must be a model. In the most literal sense of the world, it needs to be become a school for thought. Since the fight of the climate is being waged on a century-long scale, we must pass on this fight against resignation and this spirit of coalition from generation to generation. This is the meaning of the School of Ecological Transformation project that we intend to implement as of 2024. It is detailed on Page 34 of the report which is available today. A school of thought and a school for training. Initiated by Veolia, its purpose will be to train all those whose commitment is essential if we are to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Even more if we want our future to be truly desirable. It is a project that reflects Veolia's image. It is faithful to all our stakeholders and perfectly embodies our convictions. These convictions, these strong beliefs make us, and I hope all of you shareholders, proud to play an active part in the ecological transformation, to play an active part in meeting the century's challenge. Thank you very much for your attention. Have a nice afternoon with Veolia. Thank you. Merci, merci, Laurent. I think it's critically important that global companies like Veolia have these type of opportunities to listen, to partner, and to help diverse stakeholders. The main challenges associated with ecological transformation are really trying to get people engaged, understand where the business is heading. The discussion today was a robust discussion that focused on sustainability. These are all win-wins for the communities in which we serve, and more importantly, generations ahead. Let's welcome Marie-Lise Agneaux, who is the Director and Chairwoman of the Remuneration Committee, and Louis Schweitzer, who needs no introduction. I'm going to give the floor to Claude Laruelle, Deputy Manager in charge of Finance. I'm going to ask him to present the multifaceted performance results of Veolia. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. For the first time, I'm going to give you a unified presentation of our multifaceted performance and its 2022 results, both in financial and non-financial terms. As Antoine and Estelle pointed out, this process of continuous progress in all five dimensions of our multifaceted performance began with the Impact 2023 strategic plan and has been symbolized by this wheel, which includes all our key indicators. I would also like to remind you that this approach is integrated into the performance objectives, short and long-term, of all our managers, and that the governance of multifaceted performance is guaranteed at the highest level of the company since the creation of a purpose committee within the board of directors. As you can see on the slide, we are generally on track in terms of all the indicators of the multifaceted performance. After reviewing the financial performance in detail, I will focus on each of the non-financial dimensions by focusing on a particular topic. Let's start with the economic and financial dimension, the 2022 results. Your company generated record results in 2022 thanks to very strong growth in its businesses and the great success of a merger with Suez. All of this against a particularly difficult backdrop. 2022 was the third year of our strategic plan. Our group has successfully adapted to the new economic and geopolitical context marked by the return of inflation and the disruption of the energy markets. The exceptional performance achieved in these difficult conditions is a testament to not only to Veolia's resilience, but also to its agility and its ability to seize opportunities in all circumstances. Let me give you a few figures. Let's start with our turnover. It grew very strongly in one year to EUR 42.9 billion, almost 50% more than in 2021. It benefited, first of all, from the contribution of a merger with Suez for 35%, and from a strong organic growth, 14%, driven by energy prices and by the increase in volumes in our three business lines, water, waste, and energy, as well as from the indexation of our contracts and a strict pricing policy to keep pace with our cost inflation. Our EBITDA stand at EUR 6.2 billion, almost 50% higher once again than in 2021. Organic growth, +7.2% due to synergies that were quicker than expected to be implemented in this first year and to the very good level of efficiency plan. The group share net income before non-recurring items increased by 30%, standing at EUR 1.162 billion. EUR 1,101.162 billion, well above our targets of EUR 1.1 billion. Finally, our net financial debt at EUR 18.1 billion is under control, representing 2.9 x our EBITDA. These robust performances have led the board of directors to propose to this meeting the payment of a cash dividend of EUR 1.12 per share, which you will be asked to vote for at the end of the meeting. Thanks to the merger with Suez, your company is now the leader in its local market and systematically in the top three of its business lines in all the key countries for its development. We have significantly strengthened our presence in Spain, Belgium, in the United States, Chile, Australia, and in the Middle East. This is important because the profitability of our operations depend on our local market share. Veolia is now a more international, more geographically balanced, more attractive, and more leading group than ever. Let's now look at organic revenue growth by geography. France. Business growth remains strong, up 2.6% compared to 2021, reaching EUR 9.7 billion. Water grew by 1.6% with an increase in tariff indexation and virtually stable volumes. Hazardous waste again recorded sustained growth. Europe, excluding France, recorded the strongest growth within the group, with revenue of almost EUR 18 billion, up 26.1%, thanks to the energy activity and the very good performance of our waste activity. Revenues in the rest of the world amounted to EUR 12 billion, up 8.5%. All geographies showed growth. Finally, water technologies recorded 10% growth compared to 2021, with a revenue standing at EUR 4.6 billion. Looking at our growth by type of activity, what do we see? First of all, in yellow on this slide, we see very strong growth in energy driven by our heating networks of more than 50% thanks to the rise in energy prices and by the development of energy services up 29.8%. Secondly, strong growth in waste, up 4.7% in solid waste and 12.1% in hazardous waste. This growth was driven by price increases and contract wins. Finally, solid growth in water with revenues up 6.3% in the operations business, while technology and construction business was up by 8.1%. Let's now turn to the evolution of EBITDA by geographical segment. As I said, it is up by 7.2% above our target range between 4%-6%. Thanks in particular to the strong performance of the rest of Europe, driven by energy and by the good performance of waste. EBITDA growth in France is in line with that of revenues, if we adjust for an exceptional item of EUR 83 million in 2021. Growth in the rest of the world was slowed down by COVID in China. 2023 looks very promising. Water technologies. We note the remarkable growth of EBITDA with a clear improvement in our historical activities and a good performance of the activities that we just integrated. Regarding cost savings, once again, the group has been very efficient and has exceeded its target of EUR 350 million with EUR 371 million achieved in 2022. These are savings made in our operations, as you can see, which are clearly in the majority, 64%, with the application of best practices in all our sites. Our efficiency gains will be supplemented over four years by EUR 500 million in synergies from the merger with Suez. Our objective in 2022 was to achieve EUR 100 million in synergies. In the end, we achieved EUR 146 million in synergies in less than a year, since we only finalized the acquisition of Suez at the end of January. This exceptional performance is namely due to our extensive upstream preparation, the great mobilization of our teams, and to the implementation of the first operational synergies from the 2nd half of 2022. To prepare for the future, we have continued to increase our investments, our discretionary investments, which amounted to EUR 1.2 billion cumulatively in three years. 1/3 of which was dedicated to decarbonizing our assets. Your company also generated a very high free cash flow in 2022, more than EUR 1 billion, and about EUR 1.2 billion if we exclude exceptional costs linked to the merger with Suez. The acquisition of Suez did not weigh down on the group's finances because we ended 2022 financial year with a leverage of less than three a year ahead of the target we have set ourselves. On this slide you see the changes of profitability after taxes of capital employed, what we call the ROCE. It measures Veolia's value creation. With the acquisition of Suez, we have succeeded from the first year of integration in significantly increasing this group's return on capital employed, going from 6.5% in 2021 pro forma to 7.6% in 2022, thanks in particular to the strong growth in our operating income. This level is 2 points higher than the group's weighted average cost of capital standing at 5.5%. Veolia has therefore continued its value creation trajectory, and we are aiming for a target of over 8% for the coming years. Given the excellent results for 2022, the group is therefore proposing to the shareholders general meeting the payment of a dividend of EUR 1.12, an increase of 12% compared to last year. Let's now turn to the main objectives for 2023. Given the good trends observed at the end of 2022 and at the beginning of the year 2023, we are starting this financial year with confidence. We are aiming for a solid organic growth with a cost reduction target of more than EUR 350 million, plus synergies with a cumulative 2022, 2023 target of more than EUR 280 million. We expect organic EBITDA growth of between 5% and 7% higher than last year's 4%-6%, and reflecting the solid revenue growth expected this year. Our cost discipline and the successful execution of the merger with Suez. Net income from recurring operations group share will thus be around EUR 1.3 billion, representing a double-digit growth compared with 2022. Lastly, Veolia's dividend policy will remain the same, i.e., dividend growth in line with growth in net current earnings per share. Let's now move to environmental performance. We start with the fight against global warming and the reduction of CO2 emissions, which is, of course, in line with Veolia's commitment to a zero emission trajectory by 2050. The decarbonization of our activities, as you've understood, has been launched, we are accelerating, on the one hand, our plan to phase out coal in Europe by 2023, and on the other, the capture of methane gas on our storage sites, especially in Latin America. By the end of the Impact 2023 plan, your company will have therefore devoted more than EUR 100 million, additional million EUR to its decarbonization project and will continue its efforts in the framework of the next strategic program, which will be announced next year. In addition, the nature of Veolia's activities, as Estelle mentioned, means that we eliminate CO2 emissions that would have been emitted by our clients if Veolia had not existed. One good example is the recycling of paper and cardboard. One ton of recycled material means one ton of CO2 emissions eliminated for our clients. In this regard, Veolia has made it possible to erase 14 million tons of CO2 in 2022, thanks to its circular economy activities, which is a clear increase compared to our benchmark 2019. Let's move on to our commercial dimension. To illustrate this, I have chosen the growth of our hazardous waste business. This is a very fast-growing business. 18% on average since 2019, with high barriers to entry, both in terms of know-how, technologies, and installed base. We therefore have a network of treatment or processing site that is unique in the world, which enables us to capture growth better than anyone else, particularly in emerging countries that are gradually imposing the best international standards. The target we set ourselves, i.e., EUR 4 billion in revenues, for 2023, was exceeded as early as 2022, with revenues standing at EUR 4.1 billion. Moving on to social performance. To illustrate social performance, I have chosen to focus on our progress in health and safety, but also in gender diversity. Health and safety. You can see the progress we've made since 2008, with a frequency rate of 5.61% in 2022. We have divided Veolia's accident rate by three in 14 years. Great achievement. Recently, progress have continued, our field teams, with the support of the entire management chain, are fully mobilized, fully engaged to continue to improve health and safety at work. Each year, we improve our frequency rate by 0.5-1 point. In terms of gender diversity, we have made significant progress in recent years, particularly in terms of the number of women in senior management, which has risen from 17.9% - 25.2%, an increase of 40%. You can also note the very strong increase in the number of women on the executive committee, up 94%, and on the management committee, up 78%. We are continuing our efforts with many initiatives. Let me name just a few. The annual mentoring of several dozen high-potential women by members of the ComEx, and the introduction of a quota of positions reserved to women in our executive training programs. Finally, in terms of the fan... societal dimension, I have chosen to talk to you about access to essential services, i.e., the people we serve who have access to an inclusive system for water and sanitation services, whether it be local aid, such as the water voucher or social tariffs. Nearly 7 million people benefit from this type of scheme. This figure has increased compared to 2019 by 21% on the like-for-like basis and 66% if we take into account the merger with Suez. This demonstrates the attention your company pays to the fragility of the publics it serves. This is yet another illustration of the fact that more Veolia means more impact. How have all these elements been understood by the financial world? To illustrate this, and to wrap up, I will end with our stock market performance. Since the beginning of 2021, Veolia's share price has risen by 45% compared with 36% for the CAC 40 index, especially 3% compared with the benchmark utilities index. This very good performance over the past two years reflects investors' confidence in the success of the merger, this great merger with Suez. Thank you for your attention. Merci, Claude. Thank you, Claude. I now give the floor to our auditors who are going to present their report on the financial results, conventions and regulatory conventions, and on the Resolutions that have to do with financial affairs. Merci, Monsieur le Président. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, on behalf of the auditors KPMG and EY, we are going to, with my colleague here, tell you of our audit for 2022 and present the reports that we established for you on behalf of the ordinary and extraordinary general assembly being held today. In conformity with the habits of this assembly, let me summarize these for consolidated accounts and yearly accounts and talk about our certificate of the declaration of extra-financial performance. My colleague will be presenting the reports on the conventions and regulations as well as capital accounts. The main risks for the audit, the answers that have been provided are described. These are presented Page 452-455 for our report on the consolidated accounts and then 491-493 for yearly accounts. For consolidated accounts, they were prepared in accordance with IFRS, as established by the European Commission. For the yearly accounts, this is French accounting standards. The objective of our mission is to provide you with reasonable assurance that the consolidated accounts and the yearly accounts have no significant anomalies and that the accounting methods are appropriate and that the estimates of the risks carried out by management are also reasonable and that the tax and laws in force are respected. Our approach was adapted to the activities and the various businesses of the group, we also checked current operations and specific operations. The auditing committee and the board of directors were kept updated of the progress and results of our work. For 2022, the key points of the audit on the significant risks of anomaly identified given their relative weight in the accounts, their amounts, and then the importance of the judgment exercised there. Three were identified for the consolidated accounts, namely, accounting for operations linked to the merger with Suez, the appreciation of the recoverables for tangible, intangible assets, and then lastly, debts due to lawsuits in the United States and then some in Lithuania. There's one key point in the yearly accounts and one to do with debts. We also performed a specific audit and checked the presentation of the yearly and consolidated accwithounts in E. The conclusion of our works, we certify with no reserves the yearly accounts of Veolia Environnement SA, as well as its consolidated accounts linked with the first and second Resolution of your assembly. Now the report of the independent third party on the consolidated extra financial accounts. This is found in Chapter 4 of your document, and there's also a report from one of your auditors, KPMG, who was nominated as a third, independent third party. The report can be found on Page 317-320. In the terms of the law, we have to provide a motivated opinion on the conformity of the declaration and the sincerity of the information as to the results and actions implemented to meet the main extra financial risks of your company. In addition, at the request of your group, we also carried out work on a number of identified issues in Chapter 4, marked with a tick, these concern environmental, social, societal, commercial indicators, as well as economic and financial ones. In our opinion, we did not see any significant anomalies which would prevent it from being deemed in compliance and the sincerity of the declarations. Concerning our work on specific indicators, our conclusion of reasonable assurance is that the information selected was established in accordance with the references. Thank you. The special report on regulated conventions. The characteristics, the essential modalities, and the motivations showing what was brought to our attention without having to declare whether they're well-founded or not. We affirm that we were not made aware of any authorized convention over the past year that needs to be approved by the general assembly. We were also informed that For the execution of the engagement committee, we're informed of the following: The conclusion between a group of financial institutions and your company has agreed to increase the capital of your company and the acquisition of all of the shares of Suez not already owned by your company. To do with the trademark of Veolia and the guarantees delivered to the benefit of the group's affiliates, and I could mention on the lease of the headquarters of your group. For the extraordinary part of the assembly, the auditors have drafted two reports on the capital of your company. They talk about their due diligence in terms of intangible and tangible assets for employees, shareholders, mentioned in Resolutions 19 and 20, and draws your attention to the emission of free shares with the specific categories of beneficiaries established by your board of directors among employees of the company or other companies linked, as proposed in Resolution 21. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, thank you for your attention. Thank you, gentlemen. Now is the time for say-on-pay, which is often eagerly awaited. We have Marie-Lise Agneaux who will be presenting this. Thank you, Chairman. Ladies, gentlemen, I will be presenting elements relative to the pay of the executive directors. I'm sure you've already heard of our company purpose on several occasions. With Claude Laruelle, you were given some details as to the multifaceted performance. I will say how these translate into pay of the executive directors and the entire management of the group. In Resolutions 11, 12, and 13, you will find elements on the say-on-pay ex post. For 2022, which you will also find in your document, Page 184. You will also have information on the pay policy. Say on pay ex ante. Mention Resolutions 15 and 16. You have the information in your brochure, Page 97 to 100, and in your recording document, Page 193. There are two chapters. First of all, we will talk about 2022. The set share was perfectly in conformity with the wishes that you established last year, so I will not go into that in detail. Let's instead look at the variable share. During last year's general assembly, this was established, and we also established the performance categories that would be taken into account for the variable share of the pay of Antoine Frérot for when he was salaried worker and then for Estelle Brachlianoff for the period from the first of July to the thirty-first of December when she became CEO. The variable share concerns the same structure as that which was determined by the general assembly, which is to say, and you have it here on the screen, a quantitative financial share which represents 50%, and then a non-financial quantitative share of 30%, and then a purely qualitative share of 20%. The financial quantitative share is based on four criteria and leads to 144.4% of the target pay, which corresponds to net results, free cash flow, the growth in turnover, and then ROCE. For the non-financial qualitative share, which represents 30% of the bonus, it is calculated, which led to payment of 147.4% of the target bonus based on reaching the six criteria in terms of health and safety, ethics and compliance, climate, valorization of toxic waste, commitment of employees, and training. For the qualitative share, which represents 20% of the target bonus, it is a general appreciation by the board of directors based on two main elements, which are the management performance and then the strategic dimension. For 2022, for the CEO for the 1st half of the year, the qualitative share was set at 160% of the bonus target and given the excellent results obtained. Many commercial conquests, which you've heard about, managing toxic waste for a world supplier of landing gear in the aviation industry in Canada, and then also, thermal aspects of the Cairo Metro. Several innovations. For example, a partnership with TotalEnergies to recover biomethane from their waste treatments facilities. Also taken into consideration, and this was obviously very important, the integration of activities of the people from Suez, with the arrival of 40,000 new staff. The launch of the synergy plan at the very beginning of the year, and then exploitation of new commercial opportunities. Lastly, Antoine Frérot prepared evolutions in the governance structure, prepared Estelle Brachlianoff to take over. The board of directors was able to note that the passage of the baton was absolutely exemplary. As far as the CEO is concerned, for the 2nd half of 2022, the calculation of the target bonus is also established at 160%. Which also is based on the excellent results in the 2nd half of the year. Many commercial conquests, for example, the processing plant of toxic waste, the largest in Saudi Arabia, the largest in the Middle East, and building a low carbon energy production plant for Solvay. During the second half, several innovations and partnerships were launched. For example, the reuse of wastewater for all wastewater treatment facilities in France, a partnership with L'Oréal to produce recyclable plastic packaging. Also, a number of results, of initiatives. For example, obtaining double A at the CDP Climate Change and in CDP Water Security. Veolia is the only company in the sector to obtain that award twice. There was also the launching of the first barometer of the ecological transformation. This is a world opinion survey to assess the level of acceptability of ecological solutions, and this is unique in the world. Lastly, the satisfaction survey is also progressing. It's an engagement rate of 89%, so up by 2 percentage points as compared to 2021. As evidenced by the massive subscription of shares by the employee shareholding scheme, Sequoia. Employees are now the top shareholder of the group. CEO has also shown great intelligence in her relations with the former CEO, who is now the non-executive Chairman. This tandem is working perfectly fluidly in full trust and mutual respect. To conclude on 2022, after applying all of these criteria, the variable part of Antoine Frérot as CEO, and Estelle Brachlianoff for 2022 amount to EUR 764,288, which is to say 148.4% of the base bonus target. Madame Brachlianoff, for the long-term incentive, has also been provided with a long-term incentive plan with 21,994 shares, which can be realized depending on performance for 2022 and also 2023, 2024, in application of the criteria defined during last year's general assembly. That is for 2022. Let us now move on to 2023. There are some decisions you will have to make to determine the elements for pay for this year. For Antoine Frérot, he's no longer eligible for variable pay. The board proposes retaining his set share at its actual level, at its current level of EUR 700,000 yearly. We also will maintain the additional retirement plan under Article 83, as well as company car and health coverage. For Madame Estelle Brachlianoff, for 2023, it is proposed to keep her annual pay the same, EUR 1,030,000, and also the variable share in the short term with the same structure as before, 80% of a quantitative share, with 50% of a financial quantitative share based on the same four criteria, and then 30% of a quantitative non-financial share. The same four criteria. For the first, net results, free cash flow, growth in turnover, and RO-ROCE. For the non-financial quantitative part, the same six criteria as before: health and security, ethics and compliance, climate, processing and reusing dangerous waste, and engagement and training. There's a 20% of the qualitative share linked to individual targets and with strategic dimensions and management. We also suggest keeping that the same. The variable share will remain at 100% of annual pay, capped at 160% of the latter. Now for the performance aspects linked with stock options, it will be organized as follows: as before, 50% the criteria linked to finance and the performance of net result group share, and the overall valorization of Veolia's shares as compared to the STOXX Europe 600 Utilities index stocks. This would concern the CEO and about 550 people in the group, with 50% for executive managers and 50% for top potential and key directors of the year. One slight change is performance shares for the CEO, which would be capped at 133% of the annual pay, whereas it was formerly 100%. This follows on remarks of some rating agencies and large shareholders who believe that the long-term share of pay should be increased to provide a better balance between the three components of the pay and a better convergence of the interests with the interests of the shareholders. Obligations in terms of conservation will be maintained at the same level as previously. Madame Brachlianoff will continue to have an additional retirement plan. Under Article 82, voted during the General Assembly in 2022, as well as health insurance and additional retirement plan. That's for 2022 and 2023 for the executive directors. There are two further Resolutions to be voted upon concerning the remuneration of the Board of Directors. 2022, applying the policy which you approved in the General Assembly on the June 15th, 2022, the 14th Resolution, as well as the Resolution. It will be to keep it the same in 2023. An annual envelope of EUR 1.2 million, and with an increase in the sums provided to non-French and non-European members of the Board. Thank you. Thank you, Maryse. It's time for Q&A. Before we give you the floor in the room, I'll give the floor to Helman le Pas de Sécheval, who is going to share the written questions that we received. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have indeed received this year, like previous years, written questions from the Forum for Responsible Investment. The answers were provided. The answers are in the dedicated section on the company's website. The company has also received, outside of the deadline, some questions from three other shareholders, we are going to answer them live here. The first question comes from Sycomore Asset Management. Let me read it to you. What are your installed electrical capacities using coal in China? What is your phase out plan? For each plant in China, what is the deadline to phase out coal, and how are you going to do it? Shut down, divestment, or reconversions? Veolia provides heating essential services in China to 300,000 people in the context where the temperature can reach -30 degrees Celsius in the winter. We are actively working with local authorities to define and implement local alternative energies to phase out coal. Since Veolia was awarded this market, a lot was done to improve the energy efficiency of the distribution network. We have disconnected small individual plants that are very polluting using huge investments, which enabled to reduce by 30% the carbon intensity over 10 years, which represents 500,000 tons of CO2 avoided. The next step, supporting the addition of gas in the energy mix for these plants. We are also contributing to the decarbonization of China through industrial networks using biomass. We are confident in our capacity to find a good mix of solutions in this complex situation, because it's a northern province of the country which has very little infrastructure. We will, of course, keep all shareholders informed. The second question from Guy's and St Thomas' Foundation. It was asked in English. I'm going to sight translate it. I hope it is in line with the original. What measures are taken by Veolia to align its activities on the next EU regulation in terms of Atmospheric pollution. Veolia's answer is the following: air pollution is a real issue. It is a consideration that has been clearly identified. It is indeed the first cause of mortality, environmental mortality at the global level, with close to 8 million deaths assessed every year. On this topic, we are offering a range of solutions. Tackling pollution is one of Veolia's strengths. We are upholding the standards in our own assets and fleets. We go even further by rolling out the best available technologies on our industrial installations, sometimes ahead of the regulation. To give you an example, the group is monitoring the energy use of its assets. In terms of transport, the group has an active policy to renew its fleets of vehicles. Beyond traditional emissions, Veolia is working with a start-up, Tallano, that industrializes an innovative system to eliminate braking-related emissions with so it traps the fine particles at the exhaust level. We also forget to talk about the air quality indoors. It is 4 to 5 x more polluted than outside air. Veolia also came up with solutions to address this health hazard. Since 2019, our offer air quality solutions guarantees the air quality indoors from a health standpoint, and given the fact that we spend 80% of our time inside, it's a way to take a practical action to improve the people's health, no matter the air quality outside. All the information that have to do with this, they are included in the universal registration document that I encourage you to read. Regarding the CSRD, the directive on sustainable reporting, it applies to 2024 for publication in early 2025, with mandatory indicators and other indicators that depend on materiality study. The works on the CSRD has started to enable Veolia to meet with this regulatory obligation by the end of 2024. Third question from an individual shareholder, Ms. Yutong Li. This is the question: We know that the company has two ways to pay shareholders, dividends and share buybacks. I would like to know why you use those two systems instead of only paying dividends. Basically, why did you buy back shares? What are the criteria that you use to make this balance between those two solutions? This is the answer of Veolia does not do share buybacks. No share buybacks have been made over the past five years or even 15 past years. The group having a whole slew of projects to invest profits which have not been distributed in the form of dividends. There are no distribution criteria between dividend and share buyback. Moving on to the questions in the room. We have staff in the room with microphones that they will give to whoever wants to ask a question. Please ask one question at a time so that all shareholders who want to ask a question can do so. Of course, you can ask for the microphone later for another question. If I may, Mr. Chair, Madam CEO, I'm going to speak on behalf of one of our individual shareholders here in this room, who has lost his voice, unfortunately. A shareholder from Fontenay-sous-Bois, 365 shares. This is his question: What does Veolia do to collect wastewater? This, your CEO is going to answer this question. Right. Veolia does a lot around the world, and will soon do more to reuse wastewater, to recycle wastewater. It is one of the great advantages of the merger with Suez. We have multiplied the number of references we have on this topic in the world. Let me give you a few examples. In Jordan, we are in charge of 10% of irrigation water in the country, thanks to a set of water treatment plants in Samra, where we clean the water, and the water is reused in agriculture. In California, in West Basin, it was shown in one of the films, we have a series of technologies which enable us to treat water even more than what we usually do to achieve certain quality levels, so water can be used in industrial applications, in agricultural applications, and in other applications, for example, to clean roadways. In Spain, an example that we often talk about, it is well developed. Indeed, 15% of wastewater is reused or recycled in Spain. We are very happy to have our new colleagues who are sharing their expertise to roll out the solutions in France. In France, less than 1%, less than 0.1% of wastewater is recycled or reused. Well, it's not a surprise that these solutions were rolled out in those geographies before ours. We realized that water was a precious resource there before here. The more, the higher the water stress is in those countries, the sooner the solutions were developed. Last summer in France, we realized that even France could lack water. There could be a shortage of water in France. It was a little bit new, at least in some regions of the country. The good news is that our global footprint now enables us to be ready to. We have rolled out this expertise in those geographies, and we're now ready to roll them out in France. We have actually a first project that Antoine inaugurated a while back. It's a Jourdain project in Vendée, the Vendée region. Water can be recycled into drinking water. As you can see, things are moving forward in the right direction. The government water plan that was announced a few weeks ago makes it possible because it was not. Well, there were no incentives, so to speak, in France to do this, but we are ready to accelerate our efforts on this topic. Thank you, Estelle. Question number one. Yes, sir. Patrick Raison. I represent the National Association of French Shareholders. We live in a world where inflation is back. Could you tell us how the group is managing this situation, and what is the financial impact? Thank you very much. A question for you, Estelle, once again. Let's talk about inflation. Right. In our accounts, inflation is neutral or slightly positive, but let's say it's neutral. How do we achieve this? Well, about 70% of our client base has a contract which are indexed automatically with a special deadline. On that deadline, at this anniversary date, we look at the inflation, how inflation increased our costs. Thanks to the contracts, those cost increases are reflected in the price. For the 30% with non-indexed contracts, we simply increase the prices like any other companies. We go and negotiate with clients one by one. We said that inflation was neutral for a long time. We for the past two years, we've proven it because we were able to preserve our margins thanks to everything I've just explained. It was reflected quarter after quarter since spring 2021, because obviously the last quarters the inflation rates have been much higher, its inflation started around that time. We've launched all our price increase programs, we checked that our indexation formulas were the right ones. There you go. Thank you. Another question number three. After the merger with Suez, has the group thought about potential new acquisitions? Another question for Estelle. The answer is maybe. If they are targeted and value-creating acquisitions, why not? We do not need them to grow. Let me explain why. We are the world leader in our business, strongly growing business, decarbonization, the fight against pollution, et cetera. We have a lot of opportunities. Since we are the world leader, since we are a leader in many countries, it means that we are everything we need to see these opportunities. We have a good organic growth potential everywhere around the world, thanks to our geographical footprint. Despite this potential, we can be interested in some acquisitions when they are targeted, when they are small to medium size and when they are value creations. For example, when they come on top of what we already do in a geography, in a geography when we're not too strong. It can be in a business, when an acquisition can complement our asset network. We do not need to make acquisitions, but why not? Of course, we have very strict financial criteria, the group's financial criteria. There are a few investment criteria to uphold the IRR, the payback. We are very strict, so the IRR needs to be at least +4%, the payback as less than seven years. All of this to maintain our balance sheet. We need to be comfortable with the balance sheet, so we need to maintain an acceptable net debt. 3x the EBITDA, around 3 x the EBITDA, well, this is what we've been able to maintain for the past few years, which enables us to seize opportunities if they arise. Thank you. Back to number one. Nicolas Germond. I speak on behalf of the Veolia Environnement employee shareholders. As you said, employee shareholders have a 6.5% largest shareholders. It's been multiplied by six since 2015. The last employee shareholders plans have enabled employees to work on their personal projects and to also save up for their pension. I would like to know what the group's policy is in terms of employee shareholding scheme for the future, and do you have an objective in terms of the percentage of shareholders, of employee shareholders in Veolia's capital? Thank you. First of all, let me remind you how important employee shareholders are for Veolia. You said it, as Estelle said it, Veolia employees all together collectively are the number one shareholder of the group, which is important. It is important for several reasons. First of all, it is additional compensation for employees. Well, they benefit from the value created by the group. There is a personal investment which is supplemented by the company. It is also a way for them to save up savings which are favored by public authorities. The most important, in my opinion, is that it is a way for employees to contribute to their company's policy. Above and beyond a certain threshold, which has been reached at Veolia, employee shareholders have a seat on the board of directors. This allows them to take part in debate on strategy, on our mission, on how we're going to carry out our mission. Their participation allows them, in a way, to take part in shaping their collective destiny, their own destiny, and also the destiny of their company. For me, this is particularly important, and it's part of our company purpose and our multifaceted performance to be able to debate between representatives of the shareholders, representatives of the employee shareholders with the board, allows us to improve and to have a higher degree of harmony among all stakeholders. We will continue. In 2023, we'll have a new program very similar to last year's for employee shareholders. We hope that after that we'll go beyond 7%. Do we have the ultimate goal? No, not really, not so far. I hope that we will continue with this policy for many years to come because it produces all of the advantages that I just talked about. Number 4. Olivier de Guerre, PhiTrust. Chairman said regrets for... The company purpose, you didn't propose to the shareholders to vote on the company purpose. You said the shareholders should talk about having the board of directors actually say this. The shareholders didn't appreciate that. We've debated a lot, and they weren't really understanding what it was you proposed. Now for the CEO, it's the weight of words and the reality of economic choices. Thank you very much for your question. No, you've decided to serve a very small activity in Thailand without any accompaniment for the employees or for the suppliers who have had to lay off, large numbers of employees 'cause they don't have any clients. I think that a company such as Veolia, when they're stopping activities on their side of the world, they should assist the employees and the suppliers they use. I will answer the first question, then I will let Estelle answer the question, the second one. Said that it's not a mistake, and we assume our responsibility. The Resolution we proposed to our shareholders to indicate in the bylaws of the company, to say that the company would have a company purpose and that it was then up to the board of directors, because this is the body which is in the best position. It's their function to represent all stakeholders of a company, and it's up to them to manage that and also to be able to ensure that it's being respected. The goal is to serve all the interests of all the stakeholders, the employees, the shareholders, the future generations, the planet, the suppliers, just to mention the main ones. In a company today, what is the governing body, the main governing body that best reflects this plurality? The central committee of the company? No, because that's only employees. That's only one of the stakeholders. Our general assembly? No, because this is also only shareholders. What organism best represents... Even for us, I mean... Well, the board of directors, they're in their statutes. Their function is to represent all stakeholders in the service of the greater good of all of the stakeholders' multifaceted performance to build long-term profitability. Myself, I'm convinced that there is no antagonism between financial and non-financial performance. I believe that both are necessary in the long term. In the short term, there are trade-offs, this is why we suggested that this be the exclusive responsibility of the board of directors. I'm sorry that some are unhappy about this. French financial shareholders didn't wish to follow that choice. As you know, it's been a few years now since we broadened our vision for the company. For us, this, it's our... It's the future of the market economy and companies such as ours that is at stake. I will continue to preach, to convince the largest number. For the second question, Estelle. For Thailand, I'm not 100% sure what you're referring to, so I'm trying to guess. We have almost no activities in Thailand. We have 1 very small factory which never really worked because there was never any activity. As far as I know, the question is not that of employees or assisting them. It's actually the rent which is in question. We had committed to pay rent for the site for a few more years. If you're defending the owner of the land where we had an activity that never actually took off, I can look into that to answer you more specifically, sir. Number 3. Hello, Jean-Pierre Seychelles, individual shareholder. First of all, bravo and thank you for your financial and non-financial performance. I have a very small question on the cost of capital. I've noted that the return on ROCE is higher than the WACC. You could tell us about prospectus for the future of with interest rates increasing. Claude Laruelle, who is our CFO. Thank you very much for your question. If you've been following recent changes, indeed, the WACC has indeed gone up. Since we take the weighted average over several years, the WACC changes slowly, 5.2% in 2020, 5.3%, and now 5.5%. It will continue to rise to reflect interest rate hikes, but it will do so very slowly. In terms of ROCE, as you can see, it will exceed 8%, so it goes up much faster than WACC, which means that value creation of Veolia will increase over time, even if the WACC evolves very slowly. One last question. Why do you take out loans? This is a provocative question. Why do you have to borrow money? Actually, our borrowing level is 3 x EBITDA, which is perfectly sustainable. In the operations with Suez, we actually took in a lot of cash, so we don't need to increase our debt this year, and we'll actually be repaying our debt virtuously, and we do not need to raise more funds. The operating costs are completely under control. Thank you. Question number three. My question is, I would like to know if Veolia will overcome the challenge of recycling electric vehicles for all types of vehicles? Estelle, over to you. Yes, and not just all types of vehicles. I don't know if you're thinking about cars and electric bicycles, electric scooters, anything that has a battery in it. Is there even cell phones? Because every time we're trying to do the same thing, we're looking for the same image of lithium, cobalt, and nickel, which are strategic materials which are crucially needed for the energy, for the ecological transformation, and which are in mines in Chile, in China, in the Congo, and in Russia. Those are the main sources for those three metals I just mentioned. Yes, we much prefer to go find them in waste, which will become our new mines to find these strategic metals. It's a little bit more complicated than that. It's not enough to open the battery. You can't just find the lithium, cobalt, and nickel. It's all mixed up together. How do we separate them? This is the art of hydrometallurgy. We've been developing processes for the past eight years to manage to do this at a level of purity so that they can be injected back into the production cycle. We invested in a factory in Eastern France and then one in China, near Canton, to be in a position by the end of the year to be able to recycle much more massively because we do have steering companies, but we'd like to do it at industrial level in Europe and in China. The factory in France, I believe it aims to recycle 15% of electric car batteries in Europe. We'll have to conquer the market, but our added value is essential on this topic. Thank you very much. Question number two. Hello. Individual shareholder. My question concerns development of green gases. I wanted to know what potential you see for the coming years. Will the potential potentially replace importing Russian gas that was in place before the war in Ukraine? Speaking of Veolia, where will the production of this green gas come from? Will it be produced locally? Will it substitute green molecules for hydrocarbons? What will this green gas be produced from? I believe you'll have storage stations for methane from waste facilities. Green gas, as far as I've understood, is produced using waste from agricultural exploitations. There is the European directive RED II, which is extremely complex. There's a list of entrants. Like companies such as Veolia, could Veolia provide technology to assist these people and ensure that they can fulfill those administrative constraints to develop even faster the production of a green gas of this type? Then on France, French soil. Yes, Estelle will answer. Well, you said a lot in your question. Why green gas? Why is it so important? Well, because it's local rather than being imported. This contributes to strategic autonomy. It's also affordable, and it is renewable, so that tech ticks a lot of boxes. There are many different ways of producing green gas. There's agricultural waste, runoff. This is something farmers have been using for a very long time. Also, fermentation of what you find in waste or methanizers, and then waste from wastewater treatment facilities as well. We try to produce methane or gas with all of this. Veolia is not looking at agricultural methanizers. This is being taken care of in the agricultural department. We're looking at it, producing it from waste and from wastewater. At what scale? Well, the answer, yes, but actually, it cannot 100% replace Russian gas. If we had methanizers in all of the wastewater treatment facilities and incinerators, this would be 25% of Russian gas that could be replaced. This is large. How can we do better and faster? Well, we have to align a number of administrative procedures, we need the one-stop shop. Everything we hear about a one-stop shop for administrative authorization for the green industry in France, biogas, well, this would allow us to increase production and to accelerate it. One last question, number three. Hello, individual shareholder. We see that Veolia has been moving into the sector of energy recently. We have seen the positive impact in the costs of energy on activities. Is there a policy to better manage the impact on the profitability of the group? Estelle again. Thank you. There is a hedging policy, but the prices of energy actually have no impact on the group's results. There's a small positive impact in the short term. You're right, we do protect ourselves, so we buy the energy we consume ahead of time to try to avoid any effects due to volatility when we buy and sell the energy. We do have hedging tactics in place. Only the margins are established three years at the very beginning. The price of energy going up, and it's probably going to be going up for a long time because there was a long-term trend with increasing energy prices in Europe especially, and also the price of CO2 is going up. This is very important to drive Veolia solutions for energy. What Veolia is doing in energy is to produce local energy that decarbonates. It's biogas that we're producing. It's electricity produced from non-recyclable waste. It's energy savings, hospitals, shopping centers in the Middle East and Italy and all of these activities as long as electricity prices stay high, well, the more clients will come to us for solutions to be developed very quickly. In the short term, our margins are protected, and in the middle term, this will be growth for the group. This is the meaning of the resource program, which I launched in the spring of 2022, right after the start of the Ukraine war, so that two years down the road, we would produce 5% more energy and save 5% as well of energy. It is well underway. In France, it translated by a very ambitious target, which say over five years, we will be self-sufficient in France. We will consume energy through our activities. For water, you need electricity to push the water through the pipes to get to people's taps. We will be developing activities, for example, waste from non-recyclable material. We'll also be putting solar panels on landfills, so we will be self-sufficient in energy in France in the next five years. Thank you, Estelle. One last question. You, sir. I'm sorry, I didn't see you in the back. Very quick short one. Bravo for the results. Does Veolia have a solution to reduce PFAS that we recently discovered? Again, over to Estelle. She has become quite the expert on PFAS. I'm sure you could also speak very well on this. PFAS, for those of you who haven't been following the topic, it's the perfluoride, so eternal pollutants. It's the new PCB of today, but it's fluoride rather than chloride. The answer is yes, we do know how to process PFAS. One of our businesses is to depollute water, air, soil, and yes, we do have solutions for processing PFAS in all of the forms they're found in. We've deployed these in the U.S., that's the first place where we did it, through our activities in hazardous waste and water activities in the U.S. We tested the whole panoply of solutions because in the United States, they've measured and they have standards applying to... Well, they probably have standards in place before Europe will. That's why it's so useful to have companies all over, because here we can see what's happening around the world and then to use it elsewhere where it's needed. Thank you very much for your questions, and I suggest that we now move on to the vote of the resolutions. Our secretary will also be telling us how this works. Let's start with a short video that explains how the tablet works. I'll remind you that those Resolutions have a detailed presentation in the information brochure that you could find in the room or that was sent to you directly. It's time to address the Resolutions, and let's check on the quorum. We have this electronic voting system, and therefore, Mr. Sylvain Thomazon, Bailiff is here in the room. He's in charge of making sure that the information of the tablets, of the number of shares and votes, if there are double votes for each shareholder, is correct. The bailiff will monitor the whole voting process. We'll make sure that everything is running smoothly. Mr. Chair, yes, in before the vote, let me give you the final quorum. The shareholders present or represented or having used the remote voting system are 516 million 516%. We have a total of 530 million, 818,514 votes. A quorum of 73%. Do not forget to click on OK to approve your vote. Voting the first Resolution. The vote is open. The Resolution is largely adopted. Resolution number two for the consolidated accounts of 2022, the vote is open. Largely approved as well. Resolution number three regarding the non-deductible expenses, Article 39.4 of the tax code. We are now reading Resolution No. 3. The vote is open. The vote is closed. Adopted. Resolution number 4. Dividend payment for 2022. Net result EUR 1.3 billion, roughly. Plus EUR 9 billion + EUR 2 billion. The total to distribute is EUR 12, 676, 100,580. This is the spread. EUR 786, 189,871 for the dividend. EUR 1.12 x EUR 701, 955,197 shares. First one will be EUR 2, 607,00 3,683. This dividend will be paid as of the 11th of May 2023. The vote is open. This concludes the vote. Adopted. Resolution number 5. Reading Resolution No. 5. You heard our auditor earlier. No conventions or no regulated commitments that need to be submitted to your approval. The general meeting is to reapprove the previous convention, the commitment that were approved in the previous financial years, but whose execution continued in 2022. There are 5 of them. There is a guarantee contract between Veolia and a group of financial institutions. Intra-group license between Veolia Environnement and Veolia Water, Compagnie Générale des Eaux. Antoine Frérot for the period between the 1st of January to the 30th of June 2022, and Mrs. Brachlianoff between the 1st of July 2022 to the 31st of December 2022. The convention for the lease of the Veolia Environnement headquarters in Aubervilliers. Convention that ended in January 2022 because of the termination of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations. The director is the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations. Another convention. The two directors concerned are Mr. Antoine Frérot and Ms. Estelle Brachlianoff for the periods of time that I mentioned earlier. The vote is open. This concludes the vote. Adopted. Resolution number six to renew the term of Ms. Maryse Aulagnon as a director. The vote is open. The vote is concluded. Adopted. Well done, Maryse, for your re-election. Congratulations. Moving on to the next vote. Vote of seventh Resolution to appoint Mr. Olivier Andriès as a director. The vote is open. This concludes the vote. Approved. Welcome, Olivier. Welcome to the board. Resolution number eight to appoint Ms. Véronique Bédague as a director. This concludes the vote. Resolution adopted. Well done, Véronique, and welcome to the board. Resolution number nine to appoint Mr. Francisco Reynés as a director. The vote is open. This concludes the vote. Adopted. Welcome to Francisco Reynés. Resolution number one0 to renew the mandate of Ernst & Young as auditors. This is their last term. The vote is open. This concludes the vote. Adopted. Resolution number one1 about the compensation of Mr. Antoine Frérot as Chairman and CEO for the 1st half of 2022. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This concludes the vote. Thank you. Adopted. Resolutiont number 12 to approve the fixed variable exceptional... Well, to approve the total compensation of Mr. Antoine Frérot as Chairman of the Board of Directors 2nd half of 2022. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This concludes the vote. Adopted. Resolution 13 to approve the compensation of Ms. Estelle Brachlianoff for 2022, as the CEO 1st of July, 2022 to the 31st of December, 2022. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This concludes the vote. The Resolution is adopted. 14th Resolution to approve the compensation for 2022 to all exec directors, excluding executive directors. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This concludes the vote. The Resolution is adopted. Resolution 15. Vote on the compensation policy of the chair of the board. This concludes the vote. Adopted. Resolution 16 on the remuneration policy for the CEO for 2023. The vote is open. This concludes the vote. Adopted. Resolution 17. Remuneration policy of the executive directors for 2023. The vote is open. This concludes the vote. Adopted. Resolution 18. The general meeting enables the board of directors to buy back shares with some conditions. We rarely use this Resolution, as you might have understood. The vote is closed. This concludes the vote. Adopted as well. Resolution number one9 and 20. Extraordinary meeting. They are part of the employee shareholding scheme development. Resolution 19, you are asked to give Board of Directors the power to decide what to offer shares to employees. This was approved on the 15th of June, 2022, and the Resolution was used for 1.6% of the capital. The vote is open. This concludes the vote. Also adopted. 20th Resolution, renewing the mandate to increase shares without any preferential rights for employees for all of the group's companies, so that employees in countries where they cannot access the normal way of buying shares, that they can take an equivalent. This will be for 18 months, ends the same Resolution of last year, which was used the 14th of December, where 0.4% of the social capital was open at the time. The voting is closed. Very broadly adopted. Now, 21st Resolution to allow the board to give shares to employees. Shares. This was voted on favorably at the last general assembly, and there are approximately 6 million shares opened at the time. The vote is open. Voting is closed. Also adopted. 22 was removed, and now 23rd Resolution to delegate powers for the legal formalities. Voting is closed. Also adopted. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, we have no further items on our agenda. I suggest that we declare our mixed general assembly adjourned. Thank you for your presence. Thanks for your faithfulness. Thanks for your support to Veolia. For those who wish, let's meet on the third floor for a cocktail prepared for you. Enjoy the rest of your day, and see you next year.