Single market on way for gas and electricity

Date: 28/11/02

By Karen Carstens

ENERGY ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday (25 November) reached a landmark agreement that paves the way for a single market for electricity and gas.

The deal provides for the liberalisation of non-household supplies by 1 July 2004 and complete opening for all consumers by 1 July 2007.

It goes beyond a compromise reached last March in Barcelona by EU leaders, who agreed to open up commercial markets in 2004 but put off the more sensitive household sector in the face of French and German resistance.

The deal is expected to be approved in early 2003 by the European Parliament.

In practice, the plan means that a French family would be able to choose either a Belgian or German electricity or gas company as its supplier.

However, environmental groups were disappointed that the Council failed to give consumers the right to know about the origins of their electricity supply.

'There is no justification to deny citizens clear and comprehensive information about the environmental impacts of the electricity they consume,' said Giulio Volpi, of World Wide Fund for Nature.

Disclosure of information is currently implemented only in Austria but, says a recent EU-funded study, information on environmental impact would cost less than €1 per year for an average household.

Energy ministers meeting in Brussels on 25 November 2002 reached a landmark agreement that paves the way for a single market for electricity and gas.