Environment Council gives green light to EU energy liberalisation
Meeting in Luxembourg today, the EU Environment Ministers adopted the third energy package as an A-item, thus formally giving the seal of approval to the compromise which the Presidency had been preparing since January during negotiations with the European Parliament and the European Commission.
The third energy package contains Directives on common rules for the internal market in electricity and gas, Regulations on conditions for access to the network for cross-border exchanges in electricity and gas and the Regulation establishing an Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators.
During intensive talks with the European Parliament we have managed to preserve a difficult compromise between the Member States concerning ownership unbundling. Each Member State will be able to opt for the approach that is best suited to its specific conditions. The third energy package contains three equivalent options for the ownership separation of production and transmission activities of gas and electricity companies.
The first option implies strict ownership separation of energy production and the transmission system. The second option presumes the setting up of an independent system operator (ISO), to operate as an ownership unbundled operator securing energy transmission on another party’s assets. The third option provides for legal separation of the transmission system and energy production by setting up an independent transmission operator (ITO).
The Czech Presidency and the European Parliament reached agreement on the final wording of the liberalisation package at the end of March. The EP approved the package by a vote in the plenary on 22 April 2009.
The third energy package also extends the rights of the customers of energy companies. After the package comes into effect, the customers will have the right to change their energy and gas supplier free of charge within three weeks. The original supplier will be obliged to send them the final account within six weeks. Energy companies will also be obliged to provide their customers with all necessary data concerning their consumption and pay compensation if they fail to keep quality standards. Electricity distributors will also have to equip 80 % of their customers’ households with intelligent consumption meters by 2020. This measure is however conditional on the positive outcome of an impact study.
More information on the event in calendar.
Contact:
- Tomáš Bartovský, Spokesman of the Ministry of Industry and Trade
- Tel.: +420 224 853 311, GSM: +420 602 508 328, E-mail: [email protected]
Last update: 16.8.2011 15:18
