Brussels, 15/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - Negotiations on an EU/Swiss agreement on electricity have stalled. Brussels is urging Berne swiftly to find an institutional solution.
Ahead of the country's participation in the integrated European electricity market, planned for 2014, the EU urged Switzerland (during the Swiss Electricity Congress meeting in Berne on Monday 14 January), “to find an institutional solution soon”, reports Swiss newspaper, Le Temps, on 15 January.
Standing in for Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger (whose attendance had been expected alongside Swiss Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard), an official from DG Energy at the European Commission provided the Swiss authorities with a particularly blunt message, according to Le Temps. The message was accompanied by a map showing an isolated grey image of Switzerland in the middle of an electric green Europe. The line adopted by Switzerland was also compared to that of the village of stubborn Gauls led by Asterix.
The EU is losing patience with Switzerland's inflexibility over a bilateral electricity agreement, negotiations on which were launched in 2006, to govern electricity transit and reciprocal market access. While Switzerland wants a sectoral agreement offering greater market access by the EU, though not subjecting it fully to EU law, the EU is demanding the conclusion of an institutional framework agreement that includes all sectoral agreements previously concluded. This requires Switzerland to accept the body of Community law on the internal energy market.
On Monday, Commission representative, Olivier Koch explained that “the reorganisation of European electricity networks and the codification that will accompany it from 2014 have changed things. A technical agreement is now not enought. The future agreement must include an institutional framework, if only for calculating capacity, establishing reciprocity and resolving conflicts”. Le Temps also reported that the EU considers that “the attitude displayed by Switzerland, which involves seeking to impose its own mediator on the European electricity market, is illusory”. Mr Koch insisted that, “Swiss participation on the European harmonised market is inconceivable without a change in its approach”. Nonetheless, Koch said that he was confident that a compromise could be reached and that no negotiations with Switzerland in the past had really ended in failure. Bolstering the Commission's message further, he said that it was difficult to see Switzerland being unable to act as a hub and Europe's battery supply, due to the country's hydro electric dams.
On the sidelines of the 2012 global economic forum in Davos a year ago, Commissioner Oettinger and Federal Counsellor Doris Leuthard promised to settle all the technical details involved in an electricity agreement before the end of 2012. They briefly discussed the case in the most recent European energy ministers' informal meeting in Nicosia on 17 September 2012. The 2013 Davos forum, on 23-27 January next, will provide Commissioner Oettinger with an opportunity to relaunch this very sticky issue. In response to questions on Tuesday, the Commission refused to make any comment and would only point out that the EU had called for an institutional solution to be found. (EH/trans/fl)