euro|topics - The European Commission plans to liberalise energy market

Main focus of Thursday, September 20, 2007

The European Commission plans to liberalise energy market

The European Commission yesterday presented its legislative proposals for liberalising Europe's energy markets. The key element of the package is to separate energy producers from network operators, a measure which has drawn heated protest from Germany and France. The reform would also prevent non-European energy producers from buying into European networks.

Rzeczpospolita - Poland

Danuta Walewska applauds the European Commission's initiative: "If all goes according to plan for the Commission, Europeans will pay less for their electricity and supplies will be more secure... The Russian energy giant Gazprom or Algeria' Sonatrach wouldn't be allowed to acquire gas pipelines within the EU. Moreover, the construction of the controversial Baltic Sea pipeline running from Russia to Germany would also be called into question, because Gazprom would be co-owner of the pipeline while supply the gas at the same time. The Commission hopes to make this illegal. The Russian giant would be deprived of the possibility of blackmailing others by threatening to cut off gas supplies because the supply tap would belong to someone else." (20/09/2007)

Der Standard - Austria

Michael Moravec reports: "British consumers pay a third less than Germans for their electricity. And in countries where the power stations and the power grids are owned by separate companies, electricity is on average 25 percent cheaper than in states where the same companies own both the power stations and the supply network." For this reason Moravec sees the Commission's initiative, against which Germany and France have protested, as commendable and courageous. "Never before has the Commission under Barroso positioned itself so clearly against the major member states. If this coup is successful it will do a lot for consumers. However if the plan fails, this commission has reached the end of its term prematurely." (20/09/2007)

Neue Zürcher Zeitung - Switzerland

"The proposals put forward by the European Commission on Wednesday are dressed up as free-market measures, but in essence they resemble planned-economy control measures that will neither improve the security of supplies nor bring electricity tariffs down," Gorgio V. Müller comments critically. "One glance at the desolate state of Britain's train network demonstrates what can happen under clumsily planned circumstances when two separate companies are responsible for providing a single service. Therefore it can't be ruled out that the European Commission's proposals - which German and French power companies are somewhat exaggeratedly describing as 'expropriation' - won't promote competition but will instead lead to additional regulation and unnecessary bureaucracy." (20/09/2007)

La Tribune - France

The editorialist Pascal Aubert welcomes all initiatives to reform the European energy market. "It is in order to prevent competition remaining an empty word that the Brussels Commission has presented a directive project that envisages the separation of activities in the production and distribution of electricity and gas. There is clearly something unhealthy about a system where the dominant supplier also controls the 'pipes' - electric networks and gas pipelines - that lead to the clients. For competition to be freely exercised, everyone - the big and the small - should benefit from equal access to the final consumer, which is not guaranteed by the current system. How to achieve this? [The Commission's propositions] deserve a better reaction than the initial war cries sounded in France yesterday." (20/09/2007)

Frankfurter Rundschau - Germany

Thorsten Knuf applauds the European Commission's proposals: "If competition on Europe's energy markets is to be encouraged we must break the suppliers' oligopoly," Knuf writes, but goes on to express doubts about the implementation of the proposed measures: "Unfortunately, there is almost always a gap between what is desirable and what is later stipulated by law. This will also be the case here. The EU states will make sure that Brussels' proposals are watered down. Germany's Economics Minister Michael Glos is fond of attacking the energy sector. But now that everything is at stake he is giving industrial and political considerations priority over the concerns of consumers. And French President Nicolas Sarkozy will never allow his national champions EDF and GDF to be weakened." (20/09/2007)

» To the complete press review of Thursday, September 20, 2007

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