Brussels, 11/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - Given the exorbitant increase in prices, the European Parliament is calling on the member states to step up their efforts to complete the single energy market.
Implementing the third legislative package for the liberalisation of the gas and electricity market, decoupling gas prices from oil indexation, giving more power to consumers to change suppliers and investing more in infrastructure are the proposals of the Parliament in its adoption, in Strasbourg on 10 September, of the report by Polish member Jerzy Buzek (EPP), to improve the functioning of the single energy market, promote its integration by 2014 and make it an instrument to help come out of crisis.
The MEPs lament the poor progress made towards an integrated European energy market since the adoption of the third legislative package in 2009, with national energy markets struggling to satisfy consumers. In some member states, EU citizens are continuing to face high prices, a limited choice of suppliers, producers and tariffs, and a poor overall quality of service, they stress. Parliament therefore calls on the capitals to implement, as a matter of urgency, the entire raft of European legislation, in particular the third liberalisation package, and calls on the Commission to take steps against countries in which this implementation has been unduly delayed.
Given the trend of rising prices, which is expected to continue in the medium term due to the current situation, the MEPs support the idea of decoupling the mechanisms for setting gas prices from the oil indexation system and of opting for more flexible alternatives. They also call on the member states to stop using price capping or regulated energy retail prices to avoid competition distortions.
The MEPs also call for greater powers to be given to consumers, who, they feel, should be properly protected, given specific information and encouraged to play a more active role in stimulating competition on the market. Their increased involvement could be facilitated by local cooperatives for renewable energy, collective switching initiatives and aggregators or other enablers, such as decentralised storage and smart electrical appliances and systems.
Lastly, the Parliament stresses the importance of modernising the energy infrastructure and allowing investment to be made through stable, innovation-friendly and predictable regulatory frameworks. It regrets, however, the lack of ambition in the budget granted to the Connecting Europe Facility compared to the amount initially proposed by the Commission. (EH/transl.fl)