Kroes: ownership unbundling is best way to tackle energy competition deficit

Speaking to the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, Ms Kroes welcomed the European Council’s invitation to the Commission to present an initiative on improving competition in the energy sector: “Ownership unbundling is the most effective way to deliver non-discrimination, and would give incentives to network companies to reinforce grids.  There are other options, but those require detailed and complex regulation, and that would mean a greater burden on business.”  She said that the energy inquiry would be followed up with competition cases, but that an improved legal framework was also essential.

 

 

Questioned by a number of MEPs in the committee on the E.ON-Endesa affair, and her recent interview with El Pais, she pointed out that she had not chosen the headline [“No todos los españoles son conscientes de que tienen que cumplir la ley”], but her message was clear: “I intended to explain that the rules apply to everyone in the same way in a community of low, to all equally, and that is it.”  The Commission, she recalled, had adopted a ‘reasoned opinion’ on 7 March, requesting the Spanish government “to withdraw the illegal conditions it had imposed.”  She added: “We have warned Spain several times that not implementing an Article 21 decision would mean going to court.... We did what we could, when it was quite clear that Spain was not behaving, and was being rather creative, to say the least – it was clear we should do our utmost to get them out of that game.”

 

 

Asked by Kurt Lauk (EPP-ED, DE) on what should be done about state owned firms, such as Gazprom, moving into competitive markets, and by Sahra Wagenknecht (GUE/NGK, DE) about the Commission’s approach to the Landesbank Berlin sale, Ms Kroes stressed repeatedly that the question of private or public ownership was not an issue in competition policy, and was one on which the Commission was neutral. 

 

Regarding Gazprom specifically, she said the issue was more that the company was both producer and deliverer of energy products and where it also owned the infrastructure there would be a risk of dependency. 

 

Regarding the Landesbank Berlin, she said she had been concerned by a call from the Berlin city senate for employment guarantees from any potential bidder for the bank, but had been reassured by the German federal authorities that there would in fact be no conditions which went against the undertakings entered into when the Commission authorised a refinancing of the bank in 2004.