Africa | America | Asia | Australasia | Europe | India | Middle East | UK | US

PREVIEW: EU gets set to take on the energy giants

Posted : Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:11:04 GMT
By : DPA
Category : Europe (World)
News Alerts by Email ( click here )
Europe World News | Home
Brussels - The European Commission geared up Tuesday for a potential battle royal with some of the world's biggest energy firms. On Wednesday, the Commission - the executive branch of the 27-member European Union - is set to propose a package of reforms aimed at liberalizing the bloc's multi-billion-dollar energy market.

It is a reform which supporters have called "revolutionary," saying that it promises consumers more choice, better value and increased security.

But it has sparked fierce criticism from politicians and energy firms both within the EU and beyond its borders.

Officials say that one key proposal will be the separation of the energy transmission and energy distribution businesses - meaning that companies which sell gas or electricity to consumers will not be allowed to control gas pipelines or electricity cables.

It is a proposal which has already raised fierce opposition in several EU states, including France and Germany. Energy firms wield considerable political power across Europe, and have fought tooth and nail to resist any encroachment on their rights in the past.

That opposition has led the EU's Energy Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, to adopt a fall-back position.

Member states unwilling to "unbundle" their energy markets will have the option of leaving the transmission networks in the hands of their current owners, but passing their management into the hands of an Independent Systems Operator (ISO).

Such an ISO could be either privately-owned or state-run, but it would have to be demonstrably independent, an EC spokesman said.

While the debate within the EU is likely to focus on the "unbundling" aspect of the reforms, non-EU countries are likely to react equally strongly to a proposal which would limit the right of their energy firms to buy energy infrastructure in the EU.

Despite the frantic debate on energy security which was sparked in the EU after Russian gas monopolist Gazprom shut off gas supplies to Ukraine in January 2006, causing shortages across much of the EU, officials say that the proposal should not be seen as protectionism.

It would be unfair to make EU companies pull apart the strands of their "bundled" energy portfolios, only to allow a foreign company to buy up the strands to make its own bundle, the spokesman said.

But some Russian politicians have attacked the proposals, calling the EU's attitude "hysterical" and threatening to launch legal proceedings to give their companies access to EU markets.

One proposal, at least, is unlikely to cause such upheaval. EC officials say that an agency should be established to allow national energy-market regulators to make decisions on cross-border issues.

The agency would then advise the EC on how to act, a "completely original" development, the spokesman said.

The EC's proposals are only the first step in the reform process. The EU's 27 member states would have to approve them before they became law - a process which could prove stormy.

Copyright DPA

Share/Save/Bookmark

Article : PREVIEW: EU gets set to take on the energy giants
Print this article
Email this article

Stay Updated
News gadget on your Google homepage
Subscribe to a news feed in Google Reader


Related News

Doubts arise over Sarkozy's personal Berlin Wall story
Paris - A controversy arose in France Monday over President Nicolas Sarkozy's Facebook account of his visit to Berlin on November 9, 1989, for the fall of the Wall. Several French internet media noted that it would have been unlikely for Sarkozy to h...

Search for EU leader moves into high gear in Berlin
Stockholm/Berlin- The search for the first president of the European Union was set to dominate behind-the-scenes talks in Berlin on Monday as EU leaders gathered to commemorate the fall of the Iron Curtain. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was set to ...

20 years on, Berlin celebrates the fall of the Wall
Berlin - International leaders were congregating in Berlin Monday, 20 years to the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall augured the end of Europe's East-West divide. On November 9, 1989, travel restrictions for East German citizens were unexpectedly...

Germany donates a piece of the Berlin Wall to Taiwan
Taipei - A piece of the Berlin Wall was erected in Taiwan on Monday to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall and to show Taiwan's determination to pursue freedom and democracy. The segment of the Berlin Wall - 3.5 metres tall, 1.2 metres ...

Germans, Americans honoured for roles in bringing down Berlin Wall
Berlin - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Sunday on leaders to bring down the walls of the 21st century, as she accepted an award for the role of the American people in the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. There is no wall we...

Berlin 'divided' again to mark fall of Berlin Wall - Summary
Berlin - Thousands flocked Sunday to the centre of Berlin ahead of celebrations to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the barrier that divided Germany until 1989 - symbolized Sunday by a row of giant domino stones set up throughout the c...

Putin feels a certain nostalgia for former East Germany - Summary
Moscow - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was fond of his life in the former communist East Germany, where he was based as a KGB officer up until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he said in an interview on Russia's NTW television Sunday. I ...

Have your Say
Name
Email
Subject
Your Comment

Enter Verification code
 
  

 

 

More Europe (World) News click here
Follow The Earth Times
Subscribe to RSS Follow Earth Times on TwitterNews by email
Share/Save/Bookmark

 
 



 
Subscribe to free Earthtimes
News Alerts by Email Click here
For RSS Feeds Click here
or Create your own RSS

Add to Google Toolbar
Breaking News
Press Releases

 


The Earth Times
News Category

© 2009 www.earthtimes.org, The Earth Times, All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy
Earth Times accept no responsibility or liability either directly or indirectly for views or opinions expressed in articles or comments.