Strasbourg, 11/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - The main outcome of the European Parliament's adoption in plenary, on Tuesday, of the report by Alejo Vidal Quadras (EPP-ED, Spain) on the European Commission's Energy and Climate Change package (see EUROPE 9341) and the European Council of March 2007 (see EUROPE 9383) was the European Parliament's call for ownership unbundling for energy companies' generation and distribution activities. The vote also led to the EP making important demands on the third legislative package on the internal energy market to be unveiled by the European Commission in September this year.
Regulators. The European Parliament fully backs the European Commission's idea of ERGEG+ to increase cooperation among national gas and electricity watchdogs. The EP believes greater convenience and harmonisation of their powers is vital to overcome technical differences and standards that hamper the development of cross-border trade and inter-connections. The EP believes regulators' decisions on certain technical and commercial issues should be legally binding. The EP believes national regulators should be the only competent authorities for decisions solely covering their national market and should be able to monitor TSOs' (transmission system operators') respect of their investment, transparency and legislative duties. The EP believes national regulators should have the job of penalising operators which do not respect the watchdog's decisions and TSOs which do not meet their grid maintenance duties. The MEPs want regulators to ensure energy companies have the statutory obligation to advise consumers on how to save energy. They want the Commission to give national regulators the option of forcing traditional energy giants to release gas and electricity at cost price.
TSOs. The EP welcomes the European Commission's idea of giving existing TSO groups (ETSO for electricity and GTE for gas) an official role along with official duties and obligations (the option known as ETSO+/GTE+) to improve coordination of TSOs.
National champions. Agreeing with the European Commission that 'there is no alternative to the liberalisation process', the EP 'warns against excessive market concentration', believing 'that public ownership in the electricity and gas markets is one of the main causes of distortions at EU level' and therefore 'calls on the governments of the member states to stop the promotion of the so-called national champions and to refrain from passing professional legislation preventing the development of a truly integrated EU energy market.'
Price regulation and subsidies for non-renewable fuels. The EP urges member states to gradually scrap price regulation while ensuring that sufficient measures are in place to ensure that vulnerable consumers can still get access to gas and electricity. Regretting the lack of any reference to price mechanisms in the European Commission's January proposals, the EP says that price interventions should only be allowed as a last resort when national watchdogs want to prevent artificial price hikes to prevent suffering among consumers, companies and new entrants. The EP wants the Commission to ensure the internalisation of external environment costs in energy prices and to end the hidden subsidies for non-renewable energy sources (nuclear and coal)
Inter-connection. The EP urges member states to remove technical, administrative and political obstacles to the completion of existing and future inter-connection projects and to simplify authorisation procedures for the building of inter-connection lines. It wants the Commission to step up the appointment of European coordinators for projects of European interest which are currently experiencing difficulties.
Grids. The EP urges member states to facilitate an increase in network (grid) capacity to allow the integration of masses of new renewable energy on land and at sea. It stresses the need for technical harmonisation of European grids and urges the European Commission to draw up a roadmap for the creation of a single European electricity grid and gas network. (eh)