Today in Brussels the 27 European energy Ministers are meeting to discuss the Commission’s new proposal on market liberalisation in the sector. There are two clear sides on the issue, the pro-liberalisation (UK, Netherlands and Spain) and the protectionists (Germany and France). The key issue to be debated is the Commission’s proposal to reinforce the separation between ownership of the supply network and of the supplying service itself. The main idea behind this proposal is to protect equality of access to the network for all companies across the EU.
Many a year ago pointed fingers at Spain for derailing a possible merger between German eON and Spanish Endesa. Today the Spanish energy Minister, Miguel Sebastian, made it very clear, Spain doesn’t oppose market liberalisation, in fact it welcomes it but in reciprocity. Sebastian here makes a very important point that is lagging European competitiveness in the past decade, open market yes, but all markets. It isn’t fair that French and German companies can go shopping around the EU and entering foreign markets and whenever a foreign company tries to buy a French or German company national legislation blocks the deal.
This unfair situation is at the core of the current competitive malaise within the EU. And French and German opposition to the Commission’s proposal is another example of why Europe has yet a long way to go.
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