"Energy package": Proposals are a step in the right direction but negotiations prove difficult

3.05.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 19th Sep 2007

"This is the goal we aspire to in raising the competitiveness of the market in energy", says Graham Watson MEP

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) welcomed the energy package as presented today by the European Commission. Ms Laperrouze believes the different proposals could lead to a good functioning of the internal energy market.

Negotiations are however expected to be difficult. The European Commission supports the unbundling option, believing that it would grant non-discriminatory access to the transport network. "Previous experience with the liberalisation of the telecommunication sector, requiring the effective separation of service providers and network operators, has brought considerable benefits by enabling new market entrants to participate on an equal basis with existing monopolies, which has improved consumer choice and the quality of service to the consumer", ALDE Leader Graham Watson said. "This is the goal we aspire to in raising the competitiveness of the market in energy. Effective unbundling - whether full structural separation or via independent systems operators - is essential to ensure full transparency of information and non-discriminatory access. Without it we will deprive ourselves of a truly European energy market and encourage a rush to protect national champions."

Anne Laperrouze (UDF, France), chair of the ALDE Working Group on Energy: "This third package looks like a triptych of competing businesses, transport managers, and market regulators; if these are as organised as proposed, the consumers, be they individuals or manufacturers, will benefit."

Ms Laperrouze does not only consider the question of unbundling, but draws the attention to another pending question: "Are Member States ready to leave their independence which is vital to them, to the regulators? It would be interesting to know the arguments of those who oppose the Commission's legitimate wish to limit the purchase of energy companies by non-European or speculative funds".

"The European Parliament will have a decisive part to play here: it will have to defend an energy policy that is of benefit to all consumers (individuals and manufacturers); a European policy that has become a strategy," Ms Laperrouze stated; "we must build a European energy policy without any dogmatism in mind but the one of efficiency".