Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-11-Speech-2-331"
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"en.20071211.38.2-331"2
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"The Commission is following closely the recent developments in prices in Member States. It considers that those increases cannot be easily explained by one single factor, but need to be seen in the broader context of rising world demand for oil and gas. However, increasing investment activity – and in particular the switch to more sustainable energy production – definitely plays a part too. Moreover, the point of departure for market opening was, in several Member States, very low prices. In the medium and long term, this failed to give the necessary signals for much-needed investment, and we are now paying the price.
As to the question of whether such price increases can also be attributed to the exercise of market power, the Commission has studied this issue and it came to the conclusion that electricity prices in certain Member States were higher than one would expect in fully competitive markets. In this respect, the Commission, the Council and the competition authorities armed regulators to identify anti-competitive behaviour and to take the appropriate action.
The Commission is also itself investigating alleged anti-competitive behaviour by certain operators, and has launched five anti-trust proceedings in the course of this year. The Commission is very much aware of the structural problems in the sector too. Therefore, the third energy package makes wide-ranging proposals to remedy those structural problems, in particular by proposing ownership unbundling of the transmission system operators.
The Commission has always been of the opinion that consumers should be the main beneficiaries of liberalisation. The Commission’s proposals for the third energy package therefore contain a number of measures which will strengthen the role and rights of consumers. In particular, the package proposes to give consumers the right to switch supplier at any time and to have free access to their consumption data. By increasing consumer awareness and rights with respect to their energy consumption, the Commission is providing the tools for a functioning retail market."@en1
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