Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-17-Speech-2-279"
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"en.20080617.38.2-279"2
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Mr President, energy is still, for many reasons, one of the European Union’s Achilles heels, mainly due to the unwillingness of some government or business elites to recognise that in order to achieve a common energy policy we need to have an integrated internal market that is open to competition, in which consumers can freely choose their suppliers and in which energy flows from Stockholm to Athens and from Lisbon to Vienna with no major obstacles. In order to achieve this objective, which is still a long way off, we have much ground to cover and many barriers to remove.
The parliamentary term is coming to an end, and ‘take it or leave it’ approaches would be wrong, because, President-in-Office of the Council, Parliament reacts very badly when it is not respected or feels that it is being put under too much pressure.
This is not the time to divide ourselves into those who take a hard line and those who take a softer line or to act solely from the perspective of national interest. It is the time for sensible, balanced, and, in the best sense of the word, European approaches.
In the report on the regulation for which I am the rapporteur, which was almost unanimously adopted in committee, we highlighted the importance of increasing interconnections between Member States, the need to harmonise technical rules at European level, the advisability of giving greater power to the regulators’ agency, of better allocation of the responsibilities of system operators, so that they take charge of drawing up network codes and consulting with interested parties during the drawing up of the codes, also giving them the opportunity to propose codes for themselves, provided that they do not contradict the framework guidelines.
These proposals arise from the desire that Parliament has already expressed, to have a European coordination body for national regulators, with the capacity to make decisions on matters with a European scope, avoiding duplication with decisions taken at national level, and to set up a European network of system operators to develop the necessary technical rules to ensure the fluidity of the European market. In this respect, my report is entirely consistent with the Chichester and Paparizov reports.
In order to achieve an internal market for electricity, we need to establish harmonised rules and regulations, ensure that all the players are using the same rules, promote interconnections and have independent regulators with sufficient powers to guarantee investments.
The report by my good friend Mrs Morgan largely contains the right answers to deal with these problems. The subject of ownership unbundling has been cause for a great deal of debate between us, which at times has been quite fierce. However, we are still friends, which shows that Europe has a future.
I think that we are talking about a subject in which the national interest plays a principal role, in which different market models are contrasted, and in which there are established situations that we have to take into account. However, it is precisely these disparities that are largely preventing us from making progress, and I do not think that drawing up a varied à la carte list of models is the solution.
Ownership unbundling is not a panacea, but it is a necessary condition, although definitely not enough on its own, for achieving an integrated single market.
Some of Mrs Morgan’s ideas are more debatable, such as social tariffs to deal with the problem of energy poverty, because by doing this we would run the risk of interfering with the markets.
The Council reached a general agreement on the package more than a week ago. We will complete our first reading before the summer. However, to conclude, I would like to convey to the Council representative, our dear and respected friend Mr Lenarčič, Parliament’s wish to negotiate an agreement at second reading that is satisfactory for the European Union as a whole."@en1
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