Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-07-09-Speech-1-138"
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"en.20070709.19.1-138"2
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".
Mr President, on 10 January, the Commission presented what is known as the energy package, in which it made an overall analysis of the European Union’s energy situation, including the contribution of renewable energy sources, the sustainable use of conventional energy sources and the creation of a competitive and open internal market in electricity and gas.
Those are the fundamental points of the report, Mr President, and it only remains for me to thank the Directorates-General for Translation and Publications and the Presidency of this Parliament for their invaluable help. Without it, it would not have been possible to complete this report in just four months, in time to ensure our effective presence within the legislative process. I would also like to stress the excellent cooperation of the shadow rapporteurs and the political groups. It has been a real pleasure to negotiate this report with them and let us hope that tomorrow’s vote will provide a happy conclusion to all of this work.
The report that this Parliament will approve tomorrow responds to the main issues raised by the Commission with regard to the latter question, the internal market. The text approved in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, agreed amongst all of the political groups, reflects the fact that there is a clear consensus on the majority of issues and we hope that Commissioner Piebalgs will find our contributions useful when it comes to adopting the third liberalisation package in September.
Moving on to the content of the report, Parliament believes that we need more coordination at European level with regard to the regulatory framework. The current system – 27 Member States, 27 different regulations – is a serious obstacle to the internal market, particularly in terms of cross-border trade and the promotion of interconnections. Hence the proposal to create a European-scale body to deal with these aspects.
We are also pleased with the Council's firm commitment to achieve 10% interconnections between Member States, which is of particular significance to the outermost States.
At national level it is advocated that national regulators should be entirely independent of the governments and industry and that their competences should be enhanced so they can ensure that the law is obeyed. Regulators must ensure that the markets are transparent and open to everybody and that there are no abuses on the part of the existing companies.
We also agree that regulated tariffs need to be gradually eliminated. These kinds of tariffs exist in several Member States, where they are used to prevent new companies from entering the market. In some cases they are so low that they do not reflect the true costs, and that sends a false message to consumers.
We are in a period in which a radical change in consumer habits is needed, and in order to optimise energy resources, citizens need to be fully aware of their true value.
Furthermore, the report introduces – if you will allow me to use the term – a social chapter, pointing out to the Member States that completing a competitive energy market must not under any circumstances mean the weakening of consumers' rights and that our obligations towards society’s vulnerable sectors must remain in force.
Finally, the most burning issue in the report: the ownership unbundling of the production and distribution of electricity. The majority of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy believe that this ownership unbundling provides us with an appropriate measure for achieving greater transparency, for guaranteeing investments and for ensuring access to the market for new companies."@en1
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