Brussels, 12/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - Last week, the Commission adopted a proposal of amendment on the directive on liberalisation of the gas and electricity markets. The amended proposal, which takes into account amendments adopted by the European Parliament in first reading and conclusions of the European Council of Barcelona in March, was presented to the Energy Council in Luxembourg on Friday (see EUROPE of 8 June, p.8). It must still be the subject of a common position by the next Energy Council, scheduled for November, before being examined in second reading by the Parliament. Overall, the amended proposal strengthens: 1) the public service notion stating that all public service obligations remain compulsory for all categories of consumers; 2) the responsibilities of national regulatory authorities and their independence of industries' interests (the Commission hopes to create an advisory body including national regulatory authorities that will be entrusted with the task of encouraging cooperation in order to develop the internal gas and electricity market and to ensure coherent application of the provisions of the directive by Member States; 3) requirements regarding consumer information; 4) measures on energy efficiency and climate change; and the 5) protection of "vulnerable" consumers who should be able to change supplier easily.
The proposal rejects certain amendments by the Parliament including: 1) separation of property of networks in the electricity sector. However, according to the Commission, the Member States should prove that the separation measures that they apply would have the same non-discriminatory results for access to the network as property separation; 2) the possibility of negotiated access for gas. The Commission wants regulated access on the basis of a tariff published and controlled by the national regulatory authorities; 3) the possibility for the national regulatory authorities to impose availability of gas and electricity on operators (by selling production units or "making place available" in network interconnection lines). The Commission considers that, at the present time, the voluntary system works correctly; 4) maintaining the directive on carriage of gas that would allow negotiated access for gas and would not guarantee non-discriminatory access to the network; 5) the constitution of isolated funds for dismantling nuclear installations, the Commission considering that this directive is not an adequate regulatory framework. Finally, the proposal integrates the conclusions of the Barcelona Summit on the opening of gas and electricity markets to all consumers other than households by 2004, the strengthening of protection of outlying regions, and the annual publication of a report from the Commission on progress achieved in the implementation of the directive.