Commissioner Piebalgs underlines the urgency of the new proposals on the Internal Energy Market

In recent weeks there has been increasing public debate on the Commission's proposals aimed at guaranteeing real and effective competition for all EU citizens and companies for their gas and electricity needs. In particular, a number of the companies opposing them have raised questions regarding the Commission's Impact Assessment, the document that lays down the facts and evidence why these measures are necessary.

Commission Piebalgs stated: "These proposals are more necessary than ever. At the end of the day they have only one objective; the interests of the EU's citizens; as energy customers and as employees of companies for which competitive energy prices are essential. This is why the Commission has tabled these proposals and rising oil and gas prices as well as the increasing urgency of the need to address climate change make them more and more urgent. Our citizens have every right to expect that the prices they pay are set by effective competition and not by dominant companies operating in markets that they protect via their control of the network.

It seems to me obvious that the measures proposed by the Commission are vital in every EU country, and today many countries - particularly those dominated by vertically integrated companies - clearly suffer from a lack of effective competition. The effects on our citizens in these countries speak for themselves.

Furthermore, although there are many reasons why companies' profits change, it is impossible to ignore that the profits of some of the EU's electricity and gas companies have doubled or more than tripled at a time when European citizens are facing higher bills. It is impossible not to raise the question whether this would have been possible if these companies faced effective competition.

The Commission's Impact Assessment clearly lays down these facts and the reasons why the specific proposals are necessary, and builds on the considerable work already undertaken on this issue both by Council, which called for additional measures to complete the Internal Energy Market at the last Spring European Council, and the European Parliament, which has strongly supported the Commission's objectives in this area, calling last June for ownership unbundling to be the basis for efforts to ensure effective non-discriminatory grid access and a new mechanism to foster effective regulation of cross-border trade."

Source: Europe Customs