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