Brussels, 19/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - To prevent countries outside the EU getting control of the EU energy industry, the European Commission has introduced new measures into its 3rd package of legislation, unveiled on Wednesday 19 September, to impose the same unbundling rules for the generation and supply of energy to vertically integrated stakeholders outside the EU. This is to ensure that non-EU operators wanting to buy up, or even take control of, a substantial stake in an energy network in the EU will have to meet the same unbundling requirements as those that apply to EU companies. These 'safeguard clauses' mean that European Commission will be able to intervene when purchasers cannot demonstrate the absence of direct or indirect dependence with distribution and transport activities.
Although the Commission says the measures are not aimed at any particular country, nobody doubts that they are designed with energy giants like Gazprom of Russia and Sonatrach of Algeria in mind. But as the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, himself explains: 'The European Union's energy import dependence is on course to jump from 50% of total energy consumption today to 65% in 2030. So external suppliers are vital to our energy future. We are working together with our main suppliers to develop energy partnerships. Part of this partnership is that such suppliers can and should play an active role on our markets, but on the same fair and equal conditions as our own companies. To protect the openness of our market, to protect the benefits that unbundling will bring, we need to place tough conditions on ownership of assets by non EU companies to make sure that we all play by the same rules….it is about protecting fair competition. It is not about protectionism. The package today contains safeguards to ensure that in the event that foreign companies wish to buy an EU network they must comply with the same unbundling requirements as our own companies. In practice, this means that third country individuals and countries should not be able to acquire control over a Community transmission network unless there is an agreement between the Community and the companies' country of origin.' (eh)