On Wednesday 6 the European Commission backed the European strategy as proposed by the Commissioner for Energy, Loyola de Palacio, to face the rise in the price of oil over the $30 a barrel mark (see daily bulletin of 7 September, p.5). Ms. de Palacio's paper analyses the factors of this price explosion, as well as the uncertainties regarding OPEC's ability to regulate prices. She proposes four lines of action: pressures on OPEC, competition between oil companies on the European market,...