Press Release: The Commission takes action against Member States which have not opened up their energy markets properly

With 28 letters of formal notice sent to 17 Member States on 4 April 2006, the European Commission started firm action to monitor the implementation of the legislation on the internal market in energy and to carry out a detailed examination of whether the basic laws adopted by the Member States to transpose the gas and electricity directives were in conformity with this legislation. Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Sweden, Slovakia and the United Kingdom were to receive letters of formal notice for failure to transpose the directives properly or, the case in Spain, for failure to apply them properly. The Commission was also taking Spain and Luxembourg to the Court of Justice for failure to send it their national implementing measures. The Commission was still looking into whether Portugal’s and Hungary’s laws were in conformity with the legislation.

• Primary Source

European Commission: Memo: MEMO/06/152: Infringement procedures opened in the gas and electricity market sector, by Member State, 4.4.06 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/06/152&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

European Commission: DG Energy and Transport: Energy: Electricity http://ec.europa.eu/comm/energy/electricity/index_en.htm

European Commission: DG Energy and Transport: Energy: Gas http://ec.europa.eu/comm/energy/gas/index_en.htm

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