Brussels, 15/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commissioner for Energy, Loyola de Palacio, will present this Tuesday to the Commission, guidelines to accelerate the liberalisation of the electricity market in the EU. In a short communication, she outlined the assessment of the opening started in 1996 and proposes measures to accelerate the movement: a) specify the price setting framework of transborder energy transportation; b) establish consulation mechanisms to prevent bottlenecks; c) increase the number of eligible clients for the acquisition of electricity in another Member State; d) specify the role of the public services; e) negotiate with third countries access to the market based on similar environmental norms.
If the Commission supports, on Monday, the acceleration movement that Mrs. de Palacio wants, these guidelines will result in new guidelines by the end of the year. This Communication is part of the Florence forum, which, last March, gathered the Member States, the European Parliament and the electricity market actors. It also constitutes a first step towards achieving the objectives set out during the Lisbon Summit.
The assessment of the liberalisation is quite positive, since the price of electricity fell 6% on average since 1996 in the EU and sometimes by 20% in some Member States. The ceiling of a minimum 28% of the market opened in 2000 set by the electricity Directive (96/92) is generally exceeded, since two thirds of the European market is now open. Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Germany are 100% open, while France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Austria and Portugal are at the rear, with a liberalisation of 30%. All the Member States except Luxembourg have transposed the Directive into their legislation, but several countries such as Belgium and France must still adopt the implementation decrees.
Noticeably, "we do have 15 liberalised markets, but not yet a single electricity market," noted Gilles Gantelet, spokesperson for the Energy Commissioner. The communication by Mrs. de Palacio indicates that the transborder trade in electricity represents around 10% of Community production. The cost of compensation for the countries of transit and the division of costs between consumers and producers are one of the key problems. During the Florence forum, the parties defined a provisional system of rates that will enter into force in October. The Commission will have to take into account the results of this mechanism in the revision of the "electricity" Directive. The Stockholm Summit, in March 2001, will evaluate the progress in the creation on a single electricity market.