92002E0626

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0626/02

by Concepció Ferrer (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(6 March 2002)

Subject: The electricity market

A recent Commission report on the opening-up of the electricity markets has drawn attention to the existence of substantial distortions within the internal market, notably concerning excessive network access charges.

Does the Commission intend to take any action to require the Member States to end this state of affairs, given that it represents a major obstacle to firms' competitiveness?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(17 April 2002)

As stated in the conclusions to the report(1), the Commission believes that the solution to this problem lies in the rapid implementation of its proposals to extend market opening and strengthen the degree of unbundling and regulatory scrutiny of network access.

Of course other specific action cannot be ruled out in the case where current directives are infringed or where there are violations of Community competition law. Infringement procedures have already been implemented against Belgium for the electricity directive(2), and Germany and France for the gas directive(3) as a result of delays and non implementation of part or all of the provisions of these directives.

The Commission intends to update the benchmarking exercise on an annual basis to examine developments. Further infringement procedures, Commission recommendations or more legislative proposals may result from such monitoring.

(1) First (benchmarking) report on the implementation of the internal electricity and gas market SEC(2001) 1957.

(2) Directive 96/92/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 1996 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity, OJ L 27, 30.1.1997.

(3) Directive 98/30/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas, OJ L 204, 21.7.1998.