EC Commission proceedings against E.On and Gaz de France

The Commission decided to launch a proceeding against E.On and Gaz de France for a suspected breach of the EC Treaty's rules on restrictive business practices (Article 81 EC Treaty). The possible infringement, which will be further investigated, takes the form of a suspected agreement and/or concerted practice between E.ON and Gaz de France whereby they agreed not to sell gas in each other's home market.

More information can be found on the EC Commission's website or in the press release.

EC Commission proceedings against E.On and Gaz de France

European Commission initiates procedures against Electrabel

In its press release of today (26 July 2007), the European Commission announces that it initiated proceedings against Suez (Electrabel) concerning a suspected infringement of Article 82 EC Treaty.

"The suspected infringement takes the form of long-term contracts concluded by the SUEZ group with final consumers of electricity in Belgium, in particular but not limited to large industrial consumers. It is suspected that in combination these contracts prevent customer switching thereby significantly foreclosing the market(s) concerned."

European Commission initiates procedures against Electrabel

Proposals for the new federal government

Yesterday Yves Leterme presented his memorandum for negotiations with a view of the formation of the next Belgian federal government.

In his memorandum, two pages are dedicated to the energy market.

At first sight, Leterme did a good job in hiding his understanding of the liberalised energy markets.

A short overview of his proposals:

- SPE must be "structurally strenthened";
- Next to SPE and Electrabel, only one third producer must enter the market;
- Both SPE and the third producer must be able to buy together a 30% stake of the nuclear capacity at a cost plus price;
- Producers and suppliers cannot hold more than 25% of the shares of the TSO;
- The import and transport of natural gas must be based on non-discriminatory conditions for all parties;
- The federal state will invest in storage capacity and interconnection capacity;
- Zeebrugge must remain an important hub;
- The nuclear phase-out is softened;
- The CREG must be strengthened, but also more monitored.

On my Dutch weblog I give a full overview of and some first comments on the memorandum.

Proposals for the new federal government

European Parliament endorses Commission's view on unbundling

Yesterday during its plenary session, the European Parliament accepted the Resolution on Prospects for the internal gas and electricity market.

With regard to unbundling, the Parliament "considers transmission ownership unbundling to be the most effective tool to promote investments in infrastructures in a non-discriminatory way, fair access to the grid for new entrants and transparency in the market".

It "underlines however that this model might not address all of the issues at stake such as interconnections or congestion points".

The Parliament therefore "calls on the Commission to present an analysis in which the expected costs of ownership unbundling for the Member States, the expected effects on investment in the networks, as well as the benefits for the internal market and consumers are demonstrated". This analysis should address the question whether (and if so what) problems or costs would arise if no unbundling is carried out and should consider what the advantages would be of an ownership unbundling compared to the independent regional market operator approach.

Finally, the Parlieament "insists that no third country company should be allowed to purchase energy infrastructure unless there is reciprocity with that country".

The full text of the parliamentary debate can be found here.

European Parliament endorses Commission's view on unbundling