Officials claim bright outlook for first phase of electricity market opening

Date: 18/02/1999

By Chris Johnstone

THE first stage of the EU's electricity liberalisation begins this week with a handful of countries failing to meeting the deadline for introducing the necessary legislation.

National laws to implement the Union's 1996 directive are still being debated by parliaments in France and Italy, and the Dutch government is waiting for a second series of measures to be cleared by its parliament.

However, European Commission officials say the Dutch legislation already in place and temporary arrangements in some cases mean that big energy users will be able to shop around for the best deal from the moment the market opening kicks off tomorrow (19 February). “De facto the directive is implemented, the laws will follow,” said one.

In the run-up to liberalisation, the Commission has been keen to highlight the quality of the overall market-opening offers rather than the quantity. It points out that most of the nine countries which have met this week's deadline have gone far beyond the directive's demand for one-quarter of the market to be openly to competitive now, rising to one-third by 2003.

The Nordic countries, the UK and Germany have already opened almost all of their domestic markets to competition. “This will mean that around 60&percent; of the EU's electricity market will be subject to competition from the start,” said one official.

Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Luxembourg were offered delays of up to two years to implement the electricity directive although some, such as Belgium, have said they will not use all this extra time.

The left-leaning governments of Lionel Jospin in France and Massimo d'Alema in Italy are in the embarrassing position of having to convince their natural supporters to support a directive which they attacked in opposition or as junior government partners.

Trades unions are also stepping up pressure on the Commission to cushion the blow of the thousands of job losses they say will be sparked by liberalisation. A study to be released by the European Federation of Public Service Unions this week will warn that 25-30&percent; of Europe's electricity workers - up to 250,000 people - will lose their jobs as a direct result of increased competition.