Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good morning. We are about to officially open this general meeting in a very specific context, which is the one of the sanitary measures implemented by the government. This general meeting is held behind closed doors end of the decision of the Board of Directors. I'm now going to remove my mask. The 2 people who are behind me that I shall introduce in a few minutes are the scrutineers because in these very specific conditions, we, of course, respect with caution the way the administration should operate.
By my side, we see Jan Lourich, the Chief Executive, Chief Officer, CEO, the Chief Administrative and Financial Officer and Claire Picolin, the General Secretary of the Board of Directors. You've been invited to exercise your right of participation prior to the holding of this general meeting by remote voting or giving your easy to the Chairman or to a given 3rd party. No admission card was delivered. Since we very much take to heart stiff participation of shareholders. We have implemented everything possible so that you shareholders could vote remotely and follow live, this general meeting either through this live broadcast or through replay.
We also wanted to make sure that you could ask your questions. We standard, the deadline for reception of written questions until 2 days before the general meeting. And of course, for those who wish and who have identified this request, we have made sure that they could ask their questions live, and I hope there'll be many questions. Despite the circumstances due to the pandemic, you have voted in large numbers, and I sincerely thank you for this. I now declare the general meeting open.
As Chairman of the Board of Directors, I shall chair this general meeting. The members of the Board of Directors, who I would like to greet today, do follow this general meeting remotely just like you. I would like to remind you that the present general meeting was convened in compliance with the legal and regulatory provisions. No specific request to add resolutions or items to the agenda was formulated following the notice of the meeting, which was issued on the 12th March 2021 as Chairman of this general meeting. And I suggest we constitute the bureau brief way as allowed by regulatory provisions.
The Board of Directors in its meeting of the 1st April 2021 as appointed as scrutineers and they're here just behind me. First, Mr. Patrick Joye represents the CPE, that is to say the CIF, of course, represents the employees of the company as well as Patrick Julien, Tranc Lagout from the company, Darvo Participation 14. This information is published in the Belo on the 7th April and on the website of the company. I now suggest to appoint Claire Picolin as secretary of this general meeting.
And I now invite the scrutineers to join the offices. Thank you very much, gentlemen, and see you soon if necessary. I now suggest we appoint Clari Collin, who is the General Secretary of the Board of Directors and Secretary of this general meeting. The Gatling statutory auditors, KPMG Audits and Mazars are represented, respectively, by Philippe Cherki and Francisco Sanchez. They will speak to us through video and update us on their reports.
Of course, as you can imagine, due to sanitary measures, their presentations has have been prerecorded. Before I give the floor to the Secretary of the General Meeting, Claire Piccolo, I would like to say that on the screen, you have you can see both the speaker. And when we start presenting the different reports, you will see slides. You can have access to both images on your screen. You may wish to concentrate on the speaker or only on the slide.
It's a matter for you to manage your screen as you wish. East. And as you can see, you have the first slide, which is going to be commented by our General secretary, Clerpichola, to whom I give the floor. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, Mr. Chairman.
This year, in view of this general meeting behind closed doors, all votes have been expressed before this general meeting. The final forum and the vote results were closed yesterday at 3 p. M. It allows me therefore to indicate that 5,856 shareholders have expressed themselves by correspondence through the Internet or giving seats to the Chairman or to a given person. The final quorum amounts to 74.746 percent, representing 401,922,396 shareholders with voting power.
The general meeting therefore gathers the quorum prescribed by law to decide either ordinarily or extraordinarily. The present sheet has been signed by the members of the bureau and, of course, verifies this quorum. The agenda has been published in the notice of the meeting published on the 12th March 2021 and in the notice to attend the meeting dated 7 April 2021. In the Bureau of the general meeting, you will find the documents which were prescribed by law. Mr.
Chairman, the general meeting is therefore normally constituted and can validly be held and deliberate. Thank you very much, Claire. I now would like to say in few words how we're going to proceed during this general meeting. Before I do so, you've seen behind Clapicola the HELIX, which allows us to, of course, pull inside the tunnel the cable. And then behind the 2 other speakers, Jan Lourich and Geraldine Perichon, a beautiful picture of of a train hold by Europoort in excellent conditions.
Jan Neurich will present to you the main highlights of 2020. Geraldine Perichon, our CFO, will present to you the 2020 financial results. Then Jan Lorich will take over for the group perspective. I will also take again the floor to enter a long tunnel or corridor corresponding to administrative or governance issues. Then our statutory auditors will speak to you through video, and then we will address the questions asked by shareholders.
Anne Lourich, Geraldine Perichon and myself shall answer live to your questions through the retransmission of broadcast forms of shareholders who would wish to ask questions and who have previously identified themselves for that purpose. And then, of course, we'll present votes corresponding to the different resolutions. I would like to stress right away. And for this, I would like to thank the shareholders who voted today. You've seen that the quorum we have reached is reaches almost 75%.
It's a real historical record, which shows how keen you are on our company, and this goes right to our hearts. And I would like to give the floor to Jan Norich, so he can start presenting the results. Over to you, Jan. Thank you, Jacques. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
I would like to come back on the highlights of the year 2020 before I start introducing the past year figures, which shows the robustness of our economic model. The main item or the main highlight for 2020 has to do with COVID-nineteen pandemic and the measures we have taken to protect both our customers and our team members and employees. Thank you to their thanks to their commitment. We were able to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week while ensuring remarkable health conditions. Sanitary measures were expected.
And of course, these conditions were praised by our passenger customers. They are happy. We offer a contactless system and this is much safer than everything which is offered by competitors on the straight of Dover. This has allowed us to reach market share, which is a record market share, which is very important, 70. The year 2020 was also the year of Brexit preparation.
We have invested in new infrastructures and new services for our freight customers. And one of the first products that we have developed is the Euro tunnel border path, which allows the polliers to digitize, of course, their formalities before they cross the channel so that when their truck arrives to the terminal, we recognize their license plates and they can easily then cross the border because we are the ones, of course, who transfer their ideas and formalities to both the French and British border authorities when they cross the border. We've also created the Truck Village. For this, we offer a wide range of services to truck drivers. Once again, the objective is to increase their travel experience.
On the next slide, you see the first truck which arrived to the French terminal just after midnight on the 1st January. Of course, our team members were all highly engaged and mobilized on that particular night, same as authorities. And in the first hours of the year 2021. Everything happened. All of our systems switched to the new arrangements.
Everything worked perfectly and smoothly, and it's an excellent collective success. I now suggest we move to the main figures corresponding to the year 2020. We have finished the year with solid results. Our revenues resisted and did well. We reached short total amount of €816,000,000 a setback of only 24% compared to 2019.
Our EBITDA has reached EUR328,000,000 setback of 41%. Our free cash flow was positive, reaching €31,000,000 which is remarkable. Free cash flow means for us cash flow operational cash flow after investments in Eurotunnel and Europort and after debt servicing. The net result is negative, minus €113,000,000 And the financial debt amounts to €4,000,000,000 that is 92 €1,000,000 less compared to 2019. Of course, Geraldine will come back on these figures later on.
But before I do, she does this, I would like to come back on the main economic pillars, which explain this solid and resilient situation. We have 4 main pillars. First of all, our revenues were able, of course, to overcome the situation, thanks to a customer base, which is diversified and the way we have set crises. We also want to stress how we make efforts to reduce costs and strictly manage our cash flow. Thirdly, we pursue our efforts in terms of CSR.
And also, I would like to say that I would like to phrase, the efforts made by staff and the good social dialogue that we accepted in the company, which has allowed us to remain very engaged. And finally, 4th point, we need to say that we have development positive developments both for Eleclinc and Europort. Europort has very good results and has reached its highest EBITDA ever reached. And Eleclinc, which has obtained the consent to install the cable in the tunnel. I'm now going to review the 4 main pillars.
We have 3 types of customers: trucks, passenger cars and Eurostar. They all represent at least onethree of our revenues, which makes our model very solid. In 2020, the revenues for trucks and cars, that is to say the shuttle part, only went down by 17% despite the travel restrictions, which is worth mentioning. Eurostar traffic was more affected by the pandemic because its traffic was reduced by 77%. But nevertheless, our revenues only went down by 49%, thanks to our tariff model.
What is remarkable is the swift recovery of the passenger segment as soon as travel restrictions were lifted last summer. Significant way. As mentioned, we have concentrated on cash flow management in 2020. We have a very ambitious plan for savings and CapEx that we call Shield. Thanks to this plan, we have said €40,000,000 worth of OpEx at Eurotunnel and deferred €50,000,000 worth of CapEx.
Of course, the postponing of these investments will be carried out without compromising neither safety, maintenance nor projects linked to Brexit. This very cautious management of cash flow has also led us to refinance our green bonds and to contract a waiver on the covenant of a euro note debt. And this covenant was fully respected at the end of December 2020. On the next slide, let's concentrate on CSR. The year 2020 was also a year which led us to strengthen our commitments in terms of CSR.
We consider that our initiatives in terms of CSR are leverages to improve our competitiveness. And I would like to illustrate this with 3 first of all, customer satisfaction. We continue to invest our customers. It's absolutely crucial to maintain both a high level of quality of service high level of satisfaction of customers, which both strengthens our premium position and our profitability. Secondly, climate.
We have carried out a thorough assessment of our CO2 emissions in 2020 with a special focus on Scope 3, which allows us today to define a midterm ambition in compliance with the framework of the TCFD, an ambition that we shall officially present at the end of May this year. Thirdly, social dialogue or relations. Of course, the year was a difficult year. The whole company remains engaged, mobilized to offer an excellent level of service to customers. And all this, even if we've had to take active diversion measures furlough in the U.
K. Let me now conclude on Europoort. Europoort has sustained very good results back in 2020. Its EBITDA increased by €4,000,000 reaching €28,000,000 which is its best level ever, quite an historical figure. And we've also continued to develop our strategic segments, in particular, the transportation of chemical products for the pharmaceutical industry, but also international transport towards Belgium and Germany.
These two countries now represent 30% of our traffic. All this demonstrates that Europoort today is certainly one of the rail freight company, which is the most competitive in Europe. And I would like to give the floor to Geraldine Perizon, which is our Chief Administrative and Financial officer who is now going to introduce the financial results and the financial situation of the group in 2020. Thank you, Jan. Now let's move to financial performance.
It's in fact a very strong illustration of everything that Jan has just said in terms of resilience and our capacity to protect our free cash flow. In these presentations, we'll first examine why we have derived as much profit as possible of the traffic of 2020 while adapting yourselves. And we will see how we've been able with savings to, of course, steep, a positive free cash flow level and reduce our net debt. First of all, in terms of passenger traffic. We've had a lot of stop and go for this type of traffic.
But also, generally speaking, some evidence of resilience and proof of our capacity rebound. Freight traffic went down by 9% in 2019, and this results, this is due to different factors. A very negative impact of the first lockdown in Q2 with a closing down of industrial few plants, minus 25%. A rebound started in June with minus 3% in Q3 and stockpiling in November December with plus 3% in Q4. Generally speaking, apart from the closing down of industrial sites, traffic remained quite solid.
However, for passengers, traffic went down by 46%. Here again, with different periods, we had a massive drop in traffic during the first lockdown with Q2 at minus 80%, an impressive rebound or recovery as soon as travel restrictions were lifted during summer. And we've broken historical records of reservations and the market share in Q3 was 3%. And figures were much lower in autumn with a gradual implementation of new restrictions, but still a quite historical position, Q4 minus 60%. Globally, the passenger traffic is much more resilient than the one of the airline companies and ferries.
Similar way. As far as railway networks are concerned, results are more contrasted. Eurostar is the most impacted business due to the pandemic, minus 75% versus 2019. They clearly suffered same as airline companies, especially in summertime with a slight recovery after the lifting of restriction. Eurostar has also launched a direct service to Amsterdam, very important contribution of the future.
For freight trains, they were impacted essentially during the first lockdown with the closing down of industrial plants end with a decline of 35% in Q2. Activity, of course, went back to normal in the second half year. Nevertheless, we had an average decrease of 9%. This is illustration of the fundamentals which are very solid. Separately, in summary, the freight activity showed a very strong resilience for passengers.
The freight shuttle service has resisted much better compared to airline competent ferries, thanks to our contactless offers suffered much more than us. We've just covered the first part of the equation of revenues. Jan has explained to us how the second part of the equation was strong this year with a progression of the yield amounting to 15%. Now let's move to the savings we've made. We've had a very strong reduction of cost in 2020 with a decrease of 10% of our OpEx.
That is €40,000,000 with comparable basis. This comes from the shield program with 2 pillars: productivity and activity by sale furlough. First, productivity, we've optimized our financial and human resources to offer a good level of service. And secondly, activity partier lepro in France
explain the €14,000,000
And of course, as we've seen later on, the ShieldSquare program is a living project. We'll see later on, but this is a very vivid and living program with some substantial savings in 2021. We've talked about resilience traffic, we've talked about yield and cost reductions. Let's see how this translates into profitability. First of all, when it comes to the Eurotunnel activity, the revenues of the fixed link amounted to €693,000,000 a decrease of 27% versus 69.
This includes minus 17% for the shuttle services. This, of course, is important to mention. When it comes to OpEx, we find the same decrease, minus 10% with comparable basis. That gives us an EBITDA of €301,000,000 decrease of 44% compared to 2019 and a margin of 43%. Despite the fixed nature of our cost structure.
The obligation to maintain a full service during the pandemic, the EBITDA was significantly protected during the crisis. On the next page, you can see that Europoort has delivered a very strong growth in 2020, a very profitable growth. Revenues of Europoort are stable in 2020, thanks to the responsiveness and the commercial appetite of the team, which managed to compensate the cancellation of trains to van derping, adding ad hoc flows of traffic. The sobriety in the management of operational charges has also allowed us to increase the EBITDA by 7 sense. We therefore reached an EBITDA of €20,000,000 in growth by 17%, which confirms a solid trajectory of the profitable growth of this activity as Jan has mentioned earlier on.
On the next slide, refined consolidated figures for the group with the consolidated revenue for the fixed link in Europoort, down by 24% at €850,000,000 EBITDA, €428,000,000 decline of 41% with a margin of 40%. We have refinanced in excellent conditions our green bonds back in October 2020. Financial charter stable, €255,000,000 And the net result equals minus €113,000,000 as I was saying, we've concentrated on very strict cash flow management. The next slide illustrate this. And let us say that the free positive casual in this difficult year amounted to €31,000,000 The FCP operational FCP free cash slow amounting to €375,000,000 debt service, euros 263,000,000 including €54,000,000 worth of reimbursement CapEx €82,000,000 the use of a free cash flow, €34,000,000 were invested in the ElekLink project plus the impact of the exchange rate on the gross debt.
The net debt of the group at the end of the year was down to €92,000,000 in 2020. I'm now going to give back the floor to Jan de Riche for the 2021 perspective. I'm now going to start with the figures of the first half year start of 2020. These figures are obviously, of course, identified with 2 events.
Second adaptation of the freight market to the new customs formalities after the Brexit. So as you can see in these conditions, our truck volume decreased by 21%. The number of cars decreased by 72%. The Eurostar passengers decreased by 95%. The Fret goods, freight trains decreased as well.
So our revenue increased up to 154 point €4,000,000 decreasing by 33% compared to Q1 of 2020 with unfavorable basis effect because we are pairing this quarter to the Q1 of last year and because the travel started to again From mid March last year. So our market share are overall good compared to March 2020. When it comes to the passengers' set, our market share is increasing of 16.1 percent up to 83.2%, still under the favorable effect of the excellent health protection that we give. The market the threat market share is stable with an increase of 0.1% up to 39.3 percent in March 2021. So in this context, we are focusing on a few key priorities.
So these priorities are short term. Immediate management, we keep protecting both people and Also, we keep focusing on our cash flow. So our markets have remained impacted by the COVID, and our visibility is still limited as specific evolution, the changes in the travel restrictions imposed by the states. Consequently, we keep deploying and reinforcing our shield program with still with the purpose to limit our expenses to the strict net necessary. Our objective this year is to do better than the €40,000,000 of the cost reduction done in 2020.
We will also keep managing strictly our CapExes with investment between €70,000,000 €80,000,000 in 2021. Our management of the crisis is also storm through an increase in flexibility for us to adapt as much as possible to the traffic downward, upward, downward when the borders are closed but also upward because as we saw last year, as soon as the traffic restrictions are levied, removed, then, people, our clients come back very quickly into our services. And this is what is going to happen again this year When Boris Johnson, for instance, announced on 2, February 2021, that the borders of sorry, Great Britain would reopen on 17th May and bookings improved up to 125% on the same day. So beyond the shield, we're also preparing the future. And therefore, I've launched a rolled out program in order to increase our leadership as for these activities, our activities, and we call it way forward.
So the purpose is to ensure a long term growth, to improve our margins, easy way to increase the quality of the services that we offer, but at the same time, in reinforcing our CSR performances. As we know, we know that Brexit certain COVID are going to generate different behaviors, consumption behaviors in our clients. And we want to understand that very quickly in order to seize the opportunity related to these changes. And in doing in order to do that, we are going to reinforce our marketing and commercial capacities, including our capacities related to the yield management. Also, we're going to want to be more ambitious in terms of efficiency, operational efficiencies in order to be to improve our productivity.
And we're doing this with a lean management program and digitalization of our processes. So when it comes to the ECSR, We keep investing in the health of our teams, of course. We've also been reinforcing our efforts when it comes to reducing our carbon footprint. And we've done a lot already, but we want to go beyond. We have a short term objective, which to reduce again our emissions by 15% until 2023.
And this is a climate curve in the long term that will be presented in the next month. So the CSR is indeed at the core of our strategy. And indeed, by far, we are the main the most environment friendly means to travel to go across the channel. So a few words on ElekLink and your report. So The project Ileklin is going forward in compliance with our schedule.
To this date, we've led 30 kilometers of cables out of the 50. The pulling of these cables will be done by this summer, and then we'll start the testings. The commercial rolling rolled out is planned for mid-twenty 22. Next slide. You report, As we said, is keeps growing.
1st quarter 2021, the revenue was 4% higher than the 1 of 2020. And the current traffic density enables us to launch a new service called Flex Express, high frequency. As you can see on the map, the axis is north to the south, and this service will enable us to offer better frequency, so to speak, and in other words, better services to our clients, but also at the same time to be more efficient From an economic point of view. Also, we have Reunionio. It's our joint venture with the RATP.
And Regineau is getting ready to answer specific way to tender in the north and in the east of France. But with this logic of caution and profitability. So as you We are totally mobilized to face the crisis and the current uncertainties. Our visibility is not clear when it comes to the future decisions that the governments will take when it comes to opening the borders. And that's why at this stage, It's not possible to do reliable forecast when it comes to the traffic or profits when it comes to 2021.
However, we're trustful in the strength of our economic model, our business model and the long term outlook of the company. And we propose to the vote of the GA, the distribution of the dividend, Which is €0.05 per action. I'll give the floor to the President, who is going to tell us about the evolution of the governance and the works of the Board.
Easy dividend is really part of the DNA of the company. And we're very keen on maintaining the distribution of dividends, whatever the situation and circumstances. And of course, this is something which makes us stand out in comparison with competitors. As Jan has just said, we're now going to deal with governance issues. You know that in 2020, on the 1st July, we've decided to split the position of Chairman and CEO.
I'm the Chairman of the Board of Directors since that particular date. And Jan Doric is, of course, our Chief Executive Officer in charge of general management of the company. And I'm convinced that the functioning is harmonious and effective and relevant, and we have proof of this every day. Now Jan has, of course, and I, we've had to implement this new system. And we have different terms of office, which now come to expiration as this was presented in the resolutions of this general meeting.
So 2 appointments took place, 2 nominations for nomination of Jan Norich as a member of Board of Directors in replacement of Peter Levin, whose mandate was about to expiry. And I would like to say we also have to ratify the co optation of Carlo Bertazzo as Board of Directors following the end of term of office of Giancarlo Guenzi from the Atlantic Group. I would like to welcome Carlo Bertazzo, who contributes to the company with all his competence. And also, we would like to implement the nomination of staff representative from the U. K, an elected member of the European Works Council, this person is going to replace Tim Yero.
Tim Yero spent 12 years with us and has suggested to step And I would like to pay tribute, particular tribute to both Peter Levin and Tim Yu. There were 2 foundation shareholders, that is to say individual shareholders of the first hours. They've always followed, supported Eurotunnel, the group. And their vision, their enthusiasm have considerably contributed to and the enrichment of the work of the Board of Directors. On behalf of shareholders, I think we can really thank them enormously and sincerely.
In 2020, the Board of Directors worked hard. 13 meetings were held and directors were present at 97%. So we attended very regularly the meetings. This process of selection of directors at Gatling allows us to gather very important experts, contributors with very in-depth knowledge of the business and a very wide international experience in different activity sectors. After this general meeting, the Board of Directors will have a total of 15 members with 50% of women and very satisfactory international thorough representations.
On the next slide, you'll see that the Board of Directors is very active, thanks to its expert committees or specialized committees, which focus on the different items which are submitted to the approval of Board of Directors. We have 5 committees which appraise different years and they submit to us their advice. We first have the audit committee. We have the nomination and remuneration committee, the safety and security committee. We have the ethics and CSR committee and finally, the Economic Regulation Committee, which is, of course, absolutely crucial to everything we do.
The FX and CSR Committee, if you recall, used to be called the Corporate Committee. We've decided to change its name, which is much more explicit, explicit for outside stakeholders. Here again, FX and CSR, this is part of our DNA. This change in the wording of this committee, shows our growing will to increase our work on CSR issue. And as Jan has said, we will have opportunities to talk about it again.
After this general meeting and following the withdrawal of Timio or the stepping down of Timo, who was the Chairman of the Ethics and CSR Committee. This committee is going to merge with the Economic regulation committee. And this merged committee will be chaired by Patricia Hewitt, who has accepted willingly to play the role of Climate Leading Climate Director to make sure that the Board can provide a new impulse in this field. It will help us in terms of investments, and it will help us to progress on the issues related to climate protection. And no doubt this will become a particular important parliament.
This is part of a green credentials of the group. And remuneration committee on the remuneration policies for, of course, we hope that this policy will be as simple as possible. We want to make sure that it shows a certain amount of continuity in time. It needs to be moderated and consistent with the salary policy of the company. The main objective is sobriety.
We need to make sure that we need to remunerate people for rendered service, but we need to do it modestly. This remuneration policy takes into account all the challenges of the company. It's not only financial performance. The Board of Directors make sure that the remuneration of corporate offices, especially for the first half year of twenty twenty, for myself or Jan, we want to make sure that this is aligned with the long term objectives of the company as well as your objectives. And we want to make sure that the different components of our narrations of executive offices, the variable part, the fixed part, options or shares, retirement, all this needs to proportionate and compliant with the principles specified by the ASEP Medef code that you can see on the screen.
The general meeting is consulted both on remunerations for 2020, this is what we call ex post, and the remuneration policy for 2021 ex ante. I'm now going to move to the different remuneration elements for Jan Lorich and myself. Significant way. Of course, in the context of the pandemic, the choice of GasLink was the one of responsibility. We wanted to be insist on shared efforts.
Priority was given, of course, to people's safety. We wanted to make sure that we could keep people employed and pursue as smoothly as possible our activities. I think we can say with a certain degree of pride, but Yealink didn't resort to any state guaranteed loans or state subsidies. And we haven't also used of deferred taxes or social charges. So we really had a real financial year, a genuine one.
Of course, we had to withdraw the distribution of dividends for the year 2019 out of precaution. We've had to engage a reduction in operation charges and CapEx, as Jan and Geraldine have mentioned, thanks to the measures of furlough or activity parceles in France. And just out of social justice, we've made sure that in the application of activity parcel or furlough, we could offer some compensations for the lowest salaries. This particular approach was accompanied by reduction of remuneration of executive offices as well as the members of the executive committee and main or senior executives on a voluntary basis, and this is quite unique. Directors have also given up one part of its fixed remuneration during this particular crisis.
Now I would like to present resolutions which have to do with renumeration of, of course, executive offices. It's quite an important issue. There are more than 12 resolutions. So I'm going to try and be as simple as reasonable so we can save time to answer your questions. On the next slide, we now move to the remuneration CEO, Chairman, the remuneration policy was voted by you last year.
The remuneration of the CEO of second half year and myself for the first half year have a similar structure. But brief, Jan Norich, the CEO, has received a variable long term remuneration under the form of performance shares, which was not my case. In compliance with the asset made as code. I wasn't allocated these particular performance shares because I was terminating my term of office as Chairman and CEO in 2020. Therefore, the remuneration policy is simple and one adapted to the situation, an annual fixed remuneration and annual variable remuneration submitted few performance, an additional retirement or pension scheme, which is MODIS.
The annual variable part is assessed according to different criteria: economic, social and societal and CSR. It's important. And there are also comparisons versus budget. And when it comes to the EBITDA, it depends brief on what has been announced to the market. Here again, we have the first difficulty because the target of the EBITDA 2020 was withdrawn or abandoned due to the sanitary crisis.
In view of the technical impossibility to appreciate performance according to best criteria for variable remuneration. The Board of Directors has exceptionally suggested to replace the 2020 EBITDA criteria by performance criteria share compared to the GPR Get Link Index, which is the reference index that you have on Slide 42. You know that the share price was maintained quite at a high level all throughout 2020, and we hope fact, it will continue to be so in 2021. This GPR Gatling Index is based on a range of different international companies, and you have a list of these companies on this particular page or slide. However, even if the Gatling share over performed compared to the GPR index.
The Board of Directors wanted to make sure that one part of the performance, which needs to be allocated shall be reduced in the spirit of modesty measurement which characterizes our remuneration policy. On the next slide, you will see remuneration for 2020. It's very simple. You can see that it doesn't comprises any period or variable. It is made up of a fixed East part for the Chairman, for the CEO and a bonus for the first half year twenty twenty.
This bonus following the modification, which was exposed to you and proposed during the resolutions, amounts to EUR 273 €2 compared to what I could have hoped for. As indicated, I haven't received any long term easy for the end of my term of office as CEO. On the slide corresponding now to Jan Neurich for the second half year twenty twenty, we signed once again the same renumeration structure but with, in addition, because he is fortunate, some long term performance actions. And he has this easy opportunity because it needs to be forming and it will be performing. The bonus for the second half year twenty twenty following the modification we've mentioned amounts to 139 €1,968 well below what he could have expected.
The CEO was very enthusiastic, hasn't received any bonuses for his coming to his position, and he has no work small contract. On the next slide, you will see the ex post vote for the renumeration state in 2020. I'd like to remind you that Francois Gautier left the company, and you have some indications on his salary as well which are given. I've mentioned that the directors have abandoned part of their fixed remuneration 20th anniversary of Francois Gautier, of course, only corresponds to a fixed remuneration. On Page 46.
I'm now providing you with some information, which has to do with specific way. These different ratios in terms of specific way. This is important for British companies because we want to make sure that we keep this particular binational balance. And you can see that we are at levels of equality ratio, which are very, very significant. In these periods of very severe crisis, it's quite extraordinary to say that the mobilization, the engagement of senior executives is very strong.
And I think they should even get an over remuneration, a bonus, a plus. But it's not always easy to take the right decision to make sure that the group moves forward in this very, very difficult situation and in the context of Brexit. On Slide 47, you have the remuneration policy for the CEO 2021. Here again, simplicity, moderation. Of course, as you can see, there is 1 first fixed remuneration, 1 for annual variable, 1 for long term LTI in shares.
We and this is very important, steep percent on strategic criteria and on long term development sustainable development. On the next slide, you have my remuneration, fixed annual remuneration, which hasn't changed with no annual variable remuneration with no annual bonus and no long term LTI remuneration and other elements indicated on the slide. What matters to me is to continue to make sure that this great company can keep on growing. On Slide 49, you have the Resolution 18, which is a democratic plan aiming at allocating 100 ordinary shares to each employee with no performance objective. That's a total of 370,000 of shares that we proposed to allocate to employ you.
So that is 0.60% of the share capital. You know how important it is for the future of a company. Employees, if they play the role of shareholders, also have an important role exciting incentive program with a maximum of 300,000 ordinary shares with conditions of performance for the main senior managers. You will note that this volume of shares is inferior to what you offer to employees. And this is quite identical to the previous plans.
And out of continuity, it is partly revised in view of the work we have done to give more importance to CSR and how we try to limit our CO2 emissions in the next 3 years because even if we've done a lot throughout the past, we we want to continue to make progress in this particular field. The objective of Resolution 20 in view of the impossibility to assess performance and EBITDA in 2020 aims at suggesting to neutralize in this 2018 plan, which is now about to sum to expiration, the EBITDA criteria for the year 2020 with differentiated criteria between, of course, the senior managers, they will cash less than expected with, of course, more options for employees. Resolutions 21 to 23 have to do with the classic renewal of similar capital issue, remuneration. We have a reduction of capital through the cancellation of self owned shares. Resolution 25, that's the compulsory resolution, which is reserved employees.
And after this, I now suggest we listen to our excellent auditors who are now going to present to you their reports. Brief period. As indicated at the beginning of the meeting, their presentations have been prerecorded. Over to you, auditors.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, we are going to present to you the reports that we've established to you, our attention on the 31st December 2020. These reports are as a follow that presented to us On the screens, our report on the annual financial statements, our report on the consolidated financial statements, special reports on the regulated agreements. Our reports on the capital operation specified resolutions 18, 19, 21 and 22, 2 25 on which you will have to give your view. The Mazard Office has published a report On the non financial performance statements, including in the group management report. And this report is specific part in a detailed manner in the documents made available to you.
Next slide. Now we're going to give you a summary of these reports and comment the slide presented to you on the screen. Specific way. In our report, date of 24th February 2021, As for the financial position of the company as at 31 December 2020 and as of the results of its operation for the year then ended in accordance with French Accounting Principles. Pages 113 to 116 on the consolidated statements, financial statements presented based on the IFRS standards.
As mentioned on Pages 52 to 56 On the universal registration document, we are presenting the characteristics of our missions. We are confirming the implementation of the latter in complaints with the independence rules that are applicable to us. And we are reminding the respective responsibilities of the management
and the governance of
the company and months and the governance of the company and of the statutory auditors in relation with the consolidated financial statements and the yearly financial statements. Is we have no reserve as for these accounts, specific way. As for these financial statements, in the complex context, changing context of the world crisis related to the COVID-nineteen and the specific conditions it generates for the preparation and the audit of the financial statements for 2020 given the key elements of the audit, given significant risk that according to us have been the most important for the Audi 2020 as well as the restencies we've given similar as for these risks. Next slide. As for the consolidated accounts, financial statements, consolidated financial statements, the consolidated financial statements given the recoverable value of L'Equin fixed assets, the recoverable value of the concession fixed assets and the accounting treatment of financial debt.
As for the yearly the annual financial statements, the key elements of the audit as per the participation and the credits between the companies, between the group, works consisted for these key elements of the audit. It was about assessing the elements similar manner to have an estimate of the reasonable elements and the information pertaining to this provided to us year by year. And based on these two reports, we confirm that we've performed the audits in complaints with by law and that we have no comments to make. As for our report on the consolidated financial statements. We can say that given the extra financial performance as provided by the Code of Commerce, These are in the management of the group.
And in the yearly financial statements, we have firm the information related to the remuneration advantages and commitments in favor to the corporate offices. On the 24th February, Pages 223 to 224, this universal registration documents, we mentioned that The agreements proposed to the approval for the company's general meeting, we have been advised of the following agreements sent into during the year ended 31 December 2020 that there is a deed of release and an inter creditor agreement And that these two agreements were entered into for the purposes of the 2020 bond issue. 2nd part, as per the agreements previously approved by the general meeting And the execution of the latter was done also in 2020. We inform you that we have not been advised of any agreements which were already By the shareholders general meeting in which were applicable during the 2020 financial year. Now I give the floor specific
way to
the Michaeli from the Mazhar office for the remaining parts of the report. As for the non financial performance statement, we confirm as a 3rd independent body that we've checked 3 main elements. First, the description of the business model and the main risk related to the activity of the group as well as policies and actions implemented to prevent and mitigate the similar way. Coming up of identified risks. And then we've identified the key performance indicators as for the actions implemented by the group.
And We've also checked a selection of data specific to the environment and society present in the non financial performance statement based on our works. The conclusion of our works is that We are confirming that as in Page 307 essential performance statement and also on the other hand, the compliance of this performance statement with the regulatory arrangements in force. Next slide. When it comes to the reports on share operations, we have established 7 specific elements when it comes to the nature of the operations concerns. So the first report is as for the free attribution of shares to employees who are not parts of the management.
This is in reference with Resolution 18. 2nd report is about the proceeding with free allocations of ordinary shares of the company existing or to be issued to the benefit of the employees and or executive officers of the group with the automatic waiver by the shareholders of their preferential subscription rights, which is in relation with Resolution 19. Our report number 3 is about the renewal of the delegation of authority to the Board of Directors for a instance for a period of 26 months for the purpose of issuing ordinary shares of the company or securities, giving access to ordinary shares of the company of companies of the company's group with maintenance of the shareholders preferential subscription rights in reference to Resolution 21. Our 4th report is the reports on share operations, nature of the operations concerned. So it's similar with resolutions 22 to 25.
The delegation of authority granted for a period of 26 months to the Board of Directors for the purpose of issuing with cancellation of the preferential subscription right, ordinary shares or securities giving access to the capital within the limit of 10% of the share capital institutions in kind relating to equity securities or securities gaining access to the capital in relation with Resolution 22. We will establish a complementary report, if need be. Our report number 5 is about the overall limitation of authorization to issue shares with or without cancellation of preferential subscription rights. This is in relation with Resolution 23. Report number 6, it's about the authorization granted for 18 months to the Board of Directors to reduce the capital by canceling treasury shares, Which is in relation with Resolution 24.
And our last report is about the delegation of authority granted for 26 months to the Board of Directors for the purpose of carrying out capital increases with cancellation of the shareholders' preferential subscription rights by issuing ordinary shares of securities giving access to the company's capital reserve by for employees belonging to company's saving plan in relation with resolution. Under this resolution. We will establish a complementary report if need be,
Well, thank you. Thank you to our statutory auditors. Even if you're not with us easily here today. Thank you for the quality of your reports and presentations. As always, I now suggest we move to the question and answer session.
Let's start with a written session. One question was received, and I think it will soon be displayed on screen. The question is the following. The Board of Directors in fact, it's a dual question, isn't it? The Board of Directors met before this general meeting to provide answers to your questions.
You'll be able to see these answers on the website of GetLink. As far as the first point in this question is concerned, yes, we've had to face an extraordinary situation, which cumulates and combines Brexit preparedness recent COVID-nineteen. We've tried to do our best for the second written question on the opportunity to maintain another distribution of a dividend. I've already said this. Our dividend.
This is the marker. This is, of course, the DNA of a company. As early as 2,006, brief, engage the process of a payment of a dividend. We want to maintain this. And I hope that, of course, we'll be able to distribute some dividends in 2021 and over the next years.
We've had a quite traditional standard question for Mr. West. I would like to greet his historical shareholder, each time we have a general meeting, he repeats the difficulties which were faced by these historical shareholders and scheme why dividends are paid thanks to investments. I would like to reassure Mr. Start of course, dividends.
As Jan de Riche has said, as I've done over the past, investments that need to be made are done. So we're not depriving investments for the sake of the payment of dividends. So Mr. Veils can be satisfied by the fact that easy is part of the company, a company which corresponds to a value of €7,000,000,000 on the Stock Exchange. So now what about questions sent on the Internet platform?
First question by Mr. Luc Meru, who is also 1987 shareholder. I would like to greet him today. And he's asking us what we want to do with a cash flow of more than EUR 620,000,000 when it comes to the payback of debt C2A in 2022 amounting to €425,000,000 And what about the 20th of June 2020, very step up imposed by the banks. That is to say, the price will be significantly higher to force the company to pay it back.
Let me reassure him. We may of course, I would like to reassure him, Geraldine Perichon, our CFO, is already working on all the potential refinancing solutions that would allow us to keep on improving our debt management. We still had minus €92,000,000 worth of debt last year, as you've seen. I would like to say, obviously, that today, nobody now considers that the debt is a problem. It's the same thing for the state.
Money at the present time is fully available. And our issue doesn't have to do the amount of debt, which is no problem for us. The issue for us is to try and optimize this debt structure Easter so that as we did in 2020, we should place it in a revolving system, which means that little by little, we could move to a set debt to a living debt, which allows us to take opportunities in terms of interest rates at a time, I recall, when interest rates may remain for quite a long time at particularly attractive levels. So we keep on working on this. Objective is to keep on optimizing debt service rather than optimizing the volume, which according to me has no longer any importance even if, of course, remain cautious.
So no, the answer is no, Mr. Meru. We won't have to, of course, reduce dividends to do this work, but you were right to mention how important it was. We have a second question which is now asked by Mr. Romain Dolez.
And Mr. Romain Dolez, who must be a local, says I've read last Sunday, in the center issue of my purse is that you wish to reinstate duty 3@getlink. That's a real question. You know that the Euraton activity has had duty 3 service until the end of 2019 at a time when the duty 3 was came to an end because the UK arrived in the single market. We know that the UK has withdrawn from the EU.
So now again, we asked the question of duty free and we've asked questions about this to the public authorities for quite a long time now. How can we recover it? Unfortunately, as I speak, as I answer the question put by this shareholder, we still have no answer from the French government on the possibility to implement once again duty free service at the Cocal Terminal. I'm saying this very honestly. I do not understand unless it's a result of a very tedious type of red tape, I don't know.
We may have a left tourist this summer. And I don't understand why they can't reinstate this. We know that ports are getting ready for this. I think I've received, same as fairs, a possibility to relaunch duty free sales. And if you do not have this possibility to do duty free sales, I'm saying this very clearly to you, it's a real scandal.
And of course, you'll have to take this into account in the future. Before 1999, this represented a traffic, annual traffic of cars that we may consider of about 1,000,000 cars came to us thanks to duty free. It would sustain employments, jobs, the activity, we are the only ones with the shuttles to allow someone to do a return trip in half a day just to derive profit for duty free. Of course, passengers derive profit from it. But before French economy is going to derive profit from it.
So it's completely out of the question that our competitors might be authorized to cities might be authorized to duty free at the time and we're not. This would be totally unfair, and it would be, of course, distortion of competitiveness or competition, which would lead us, of course, in view of a Treaty of Canterbury, which provides us with rights but also obligations to the states to engage, of course, a claim in front of a court. And of course, I would like to avoid this type of litigation or dispute. We've written to Mr. Olivier Dussaud at the finance ministry to say it's becoming very urgent.
Please authorize us to do duty free, same as ferries are authorized to. I can't say much more about it as we speak, I repeat. You know how convinced I am about this. As long as we won't have duty free authorized on the French terminal at Skokal, your tunnel, I will lead a very tough battle so that I obtain, of course, a positive answer and outcome in this. I don't know why we would be deprived from the duty free sales.
I don't want to worry you about this, but I would like to say that owing to the current circumstances, the pandemic, COVID-nineteen, Brexit, the swift recovery or not of the market, the reopening of the borders, red, amber or green. Whatever circumstances, the company is fully engaged to draw maximum of benefit from the situation. At Eurotunnel, we have a remarkable capacity easily to rebound, to adapt to circumstances linked to the commitment of, of course, corporate officers, senior management, employees and trade unions and staff representatives. And there are 2 other activities which may lead us further in the future. Rail Freight, you know that in France, the Ministry of Transport has recently announced that they were about to launch plan to support rate traffic.
And 72 measures have just been published that may lead to launch a long term plan in this sector. Europoort, which is the best ever French rail freight company in terms of profitability. At the present time, we'll be able to benefit from this plan. And it's a very good thing that at last, rail freight is recognized as a very effective piggybacking solution. And then you have ELEC link.
This project was launched 10 years ago now. And Jan de Riche has indicated to you that we already pulled 30 4 kilometers of a cable out of 50 kilometers. So as soon as early summer, we'll have to start launching tests and trials. You know that this project was frozen for 3 years due to the in-depth technical assessment of the CTSA and that the IGC, which is quite favorable on this project, was waiting for the advice of technical experts. There's been so many assessments made of any kind.
Now that the cable is in the process of being hold and pulled, we need to be able to launch the trial period to check but the theoretical assessments are compliant with reality comply with reality. So once again, it would be utterly how awful if we were slowed down in the process just because some people would wonder about the safety of this stable. Let's do a test and then we'll see whether it's safe or not. I've said this publicly. I'd like to repeat myself.
Should the test not be satisfying. Of course, we will take all the necessary corrective measures, but let's test it. In view of these 3 drivers for growth, the Chateau, Eurostar. Well, Eurostar, I think for this, we The French and British states need to really understand how vital this service is. They offer the same services as airlines companies which are supported financially by states.
This is unfair. Eurostar should be supported. But we'll be there. We'll support Eurostar, and we make sure that we can keep on growing. Railfreight is going to keep on growing.
ElekLink will finally be able to move forward towards commissioning. It is therefore in this particular context, dear shareholders, that we're now going to be able to look at the result of your votes because there are no other questions to be answered on screen as announced. I now give the floor to Claire Picolin who so that she can provide us with the result of your votes. And I will then conclude on the basis of these results. Over to you, Claire.
First resolution is adopted with a majority of 99 point 96% of the votes. Resolution number 2 with regards to the appropriation of the result of the year has been adopted with the majority of 96.69 percent of the votes. Resolution 3 With regards to the review and approval of the consolidated accounts has is approved with the majority of 99.96% specific of the votes. Resolution 4 with regards to the authorization granted to the Board of Directors to allow the company to buy back and trade in its own shares is adopted with 98.26 percent of votes. Resolution 5 East.
With regards to the regulated agreements is adopted with the majority of 99.95 percent of the votes. The resolution number 6 with regards to the ratification of the co option of Karl Bertard. So is adopted with a majority of 99.60 percent of the votes. Resolution 7 with regards to the appointment of Jan Lourich is adopted with a majority of 99.80 percent of the votes. Resolution number 8 about the approval of the modification of an element of the 2020 remuneration policy for the Chief Executive Officer is adopted 94.80% of the votes.
Specific way. Resolution number 9 with regard to the approval of the modification of an element of the 2020 remuneration policy The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer is adopted with the majority of 94.80 percent of the votes. Resolution 10 as for the ex post vote, approval of the information relating to the remuneration adopted with the majority of 98.15% of the votes. Resolution 11 with regards to the ex post vote, approval of the remuneration pay during or awarded for the first half of the financial year ended 31 December 2022. Jacques Gounon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, is adopted with a majority of 90 7.24 percent of the votes.
Resolution 12 related to the ex post vote approval of the remuneration pay during or awarded for the second half of the financial year ended 31 December 2022. Jan Lourich, Chief Executive Officer is adopted 97.48 percent of the votes. Resolution 13, As for the ex post vote, approval of the remuneration paid during or awarded to the second half of the financial year, Touje Grenin's Chairman is adopted with a majority of 99.49 percent with the votes. Resolution 14 on the ex post vote approval of the remuneration paid during or awarded for the financial year ended 31 December 2022. Francois Gautier, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, is adopted with majority of 97.51 percent of the votes.
Resolution 15 specific way. On the ex anti vote, approval of the remuneration policy for executive officers and directors for 2021 is adopted with the majority of easy 9.91 percent of the votes. Resolution 16 On the ex anti vote approval of the remuneration policy, attributable
specific way. The Chief
Executive Officer is adopted 99.03 percent of the votes. Resolution 17 on the ex anti vote approval of the remuneration policy attributable to the Chairman of the Board is adopted with a majority of 99.48 percent of the votes. Resolution 18 The delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors to proceed with the collective reallocation of shares to all non executive employees of the company. This is adopted with the majority of 99.14% of the votes. Resolution 19 on the authorization granted to the Board of Directors for allocating ordinary shares subject to performance conditions free of charge to certain members of the group's employees and or executive officers is adopted with the majority of 98% 98.35 percent of the votes.
Resolution 20 on the approval of the modification of an element of the 2018 long term incentive plan is adopted is adopted, sorry, with a majority of 97.63% of the votes. Resolution 21 on the renewal of the delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors 2 issue with shareholders preferential subscription rights maintained ordinary shares of the company or securities giving access to ordinary shares of the company or of companies of the company's group is adopted with 97.28 percent of the vote. Resolution 22, delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors to issue with cancellation of the preferential subscription rights, ordinary shows of securities given access to the capital nominations contributions in kind relating to equity securities of securities, giving access to the capital is adopted when 98.63 percent of the votes. Resolution 23 overall limit of the authorization to issue shares with or without cancellation of preferential subscription rights reduce the share capital by canceling treasury shares is adopted with the majority of 98 0.29 percent of the votes. Resolution 25, delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors to carry out capital increases with withdrawal of the shareholders' preferential subscription Sunrise by issuing ordinary shares of securities giving access to the company's capital reserve to the employee belonging to company.
Savings plan is adopted with 98.35 percent of the votes. Resolution 26, deletion of obsolete mention from the articles of association, is adopted with 99.84 percent of the votes. Resolution 27, powers for the formalities, is adopted with the majority of 99.97 percent of the votes.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, Claire, thank you very much for these results that you've just presented. Dear shareholders, we're now coming to the end of this general meeting. I would like to thank you very sincerely on behalf of the whole team here for your rate of participation, it's almost 75%. I would like to thank you for your massive support, obvious support. And I could tell you how much this is important.
This engagement, your support is absolutely key for us. I would like to thank Yaron Doris and Geraldine Perichon, the CEO and CFO, for their presentations. I can assure you thanks to your very positive votes, fully motivated to do even more and better. And I hope, I really hope that next year, especially in relation of vaccine policy that will allow us to exit this particular solution or pandemic, we'll be able to meet again. I would like to say that your absence, you judge us, you're here to listen to us.
You're not here before us, and this is quite painful. And I really hope that we will have the possibility to meet again soon in the flesh. But in the meantime, I can assure you that the company will keep on working hard. And I'm now in a position to officially close this session of a general meeting while thanking you again for your support. Thank you very much and keep safe.
Thank you very much. Bye bye. Take care.