Brussels, 09/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - On a visit to Templeuve last Wednesday, near the site for reinforcing the Avelin-Avelgem electricity line at the Franco-Belgian border, which links up the two countries, the Commissioner for Energy, Andris Piebalgs, welcomed the completion of another stage of new electricity connections between France and Belgium. This site benefits from the financial support of the Trans-European energy networks and should allow for developments in trade and competition on the electricity markets as well as the strengthening of the two countries' security of supply.
Existing cross-border electricity lines are insufficient for transmitting the physical flows from increasing international trade created with the opening of the market. The connection between France and Belgium has experienced bottlenecks in electricity flows from the European electricity market. The French energy transport network manager RTE and its Belgian equivalent ELIA have therefore agreed to strengthen their electricity exchange capacities between their countries, which should as a result allow for the electricity incapacity in the Benelux region to be rectified and for electricity between France, the Netherlands and Germany to be distributed. Strengthened connections between France and Belgium is in full compliance with the objectives pursued in the Franco-Belgian memorandum of understanding signed on 7 March between the French minister for industry, Patrick Devedjian and the Belgian minister for the economy, Marc Verwilghen. Setting up a second circuit on the Avelin-Avelgem line, which will be operational at the end of the year, is one of the priority projects in the Trans-European Energy Networks, and has therefore received co-funding of EUR 1.05 million from the Commission for this construction phase.
The strengthening of this connection and other lines planned should allow trade to develop and security of supply to improve between France and Belgium. It should also be a stimulus to competition if the new capacities released are allocated to new market entrants. True independence of the network operators appears here to be the key to successful opening-up of the markets. Mr Piebalgs, did, however, emphasise the importance of ensuring that these new capacities are allocated in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner to the benefit of all consumers, and reaffirmed the fundamental role of the regulators in this regard. The creation of a large internal market for electricity requires sufficient interconnection capacities to allow trade and overcome bottlenecks. These new capacities will make it possible to develop the market in the region, as a first step towards a European internal market. That is why, at the Barcelona Council in March 2002, the Heads of State and Government agreed to set the objective of reaching a level of electrical interconnection equivalent to at least 10% of their production capacity by 2005.