independence of energy

The European Ministers of Energy have been unable to agree on a common core of principles to be observed to ensure the independence of energy carriers vis-à-vis major integrated groups such as EDF and GDF.

OUR OFFICE IN BRUSSELS.

The dish menu at the working lunch of European Ministers of Energy, meeting in Brussels yesterday, did not turn out to be unanimous. After two hours of discussion disturbed by the surprise of E projects. ON, the Twenty-Sept failed to agree on a common core of principles to be observed to ensure the independence of carriers energy vis-à-vis major integrated groups such as EDF and Gaz de France.

The Commission, which denounced the "inherent conflict of interest" in such groups gas or electricity, proposed last September a draft directive aimed at forcing these behemoths to sell their transport networks in a manner that ensures the 'independence. But a group of eight countries, led by France and Germany, denies that vision. Shortly seduced by the option of the Independent System Operator as an alternative by the Commission, they proposed a "third way" to establish the conditions for an "effective and efficient separation" between sellers and transporters of energy provided up to a separation heritage.

During a particularly lively discussion, ministers British, Swedish, Danish and Dutch mostly rejected the text proposed by the Slovenian presidency of the European Union, which sought to synthesize yet the conditions necessary to obtain any agreement and should serve as a basis for future negotiations. They insisted on demanding more guarantees on the "third way". A resumption of the board, in the early afternoon, the Slovenian presidency could not but note the existence of "differences". "There was, on the one hand, nineteen Member States and on the other eight countries that offered an alternative to that of the Commission. Today, there are twenty-two or twenty-three that are reasonable to consider this alternative as the only way out, and four who are really hostile, "relativisait at the exit of the council Minister of the Ecology, Jean-Louis Borloo. "The third way is not abandoned, he stressed. Rather, the Slovenian presidency has said that several options remain on the table. "

Only about consensus, the horizon referred to reach a political agreement. "All member states are in agreement on one point: we must reach an agreement by June," said yesterday the EU Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebal