Slovenes press for energy deal

The Slovenian presidency of the EU is insisting that a third possible option for separating the generation and transmission activities of large energy companies will not hold up plans to reach agreement on new energy rules by June.

The European Commission has proposed two options to ensure effective separation: ownership unbundling, where companies sell off their shares in transmission businesses, and an independent systems operator with full operating independence from generating business.

France and Germany have said that both options are unacceptable and are pushing for a third option which is sometimes described as ‘regulated unbundling’ where companies face greater regulatory requirements.

Slovenia’s Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak said on Monday (7 January) that the presidency was part of an informal group working with France and Germany on a third option for unbundling energy companies’ generating businesses from transmission networks.

Joachim Würmeling, German state secretary for economics, said in December that he would present detailed proposals on the third option early this year.

But Vizjak, who will chair the Energy Council on 28 February, said that the presidency had "defined a close time frame" for drawing up and studying an alternative proposal. "We expect by the end of January we will have analysed the third proposal to see if it’s acceptable to countries in favour of ownership unbundling," he said.

Vizjak stressed that the third option should not be an excuse for delaying agreement. "We don’t want people through this working group to delay the whole story," he said.

EU officials said that if energy ministers were to have an in-depth discussion of a third option at the Council on 28 February, a detailed proposal would need to be ready by the end of January.

Vizjak said that while Slovenia favoured ownership unbundling as the most effective option, the presidency wanted to do all it could to find a compromise to achieve consensus on the package.

The minister said that France and Germany were "the most active" in the working group but added that several other countries, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria, supported them or had reservations about the Commission’s proposals.

A spokesman for Andris Piebalgs, the European energy commissioner, said: "We consider ownership unbundling is the best option with an ISO [independent system operator) second best." But, he added, the Commission was "open to any alternative which leads to effective unbundling".

A UK official said that it was important to "move forward on completing the EU’s internal energy market". The UK was "open to solutions" provided that they met a list of criteria to ensure that they led to effective unbundling, the official said. "If these criteria are met, we’d be prepared to consider it."

The Slovenian government wants to complete first reading of the energy market proposals by the end of its EU presidency in June. This would involve reaching agreement on the outlines of a deal on all the major issues including the form of unbundling and a new Agency for the Co-ordination of Energy Regulators. The package is likely to need a second reading to fine-tune the details so final agreement might only be reached later, possibly under the French presidency in the second half of the year.

The Slovenian presidency of the EU is insisting that a third possible option for separating the generation and transmission activities of large energy companies will not hold up plans to reach agreement on new energy rules by June.