Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-21-Speech-2-636"
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"en.20100921.22.2-636"2
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"You are talking about the Greek energy sector and its restructuring. It can be assumed that opening up the market to competition will enable resources to be distributed more efficiently, thereby securing growth and jobs in the energy sector, and that this will also have an impact on other areas of the economy. It is up to Greece to decide the best way to restructure its energy sector within the framework of EU legislation on the energy internal market. Unbundling, which refers to the ownership of electricity grids and its restructuring, is an effective means of promoting competition. In the current situation, there may also be budgetary reasons for Greece to privatise the grids either fully or in part. The same applies to the sale of some of the lignite and hydroelectric generating plant and of the state electricity company. As mentioned previously, it is about revenues and competition. How this is done on the basis of EU law is a matter for the Greek state.
One relevant aspect concerns suitable measures to compensate for the fact that, as the sole operator, the Public Power Corporation currently enjoys the benefits of the power stations. Where the lignite power stations are concerned, Greece is now behind in the implementing process and must and shall meet its obligations arising from the decisions made by the Commission in the competition proceedings. We have a good dialogue with the Greek Government on this. I think that is important. The government there is currently complying with significant orders in the areas of budgets and currency, which makes it all the more necessary to ensure that a good partnership exists between EU law and the Commission, on the one hand, and the Greek Government, on the other.
Where prices to consumers are concerned, the government has specified numerous tariff categories. These are not uniform and, in many cases, do not take into account the wholesale prices; in other words, the costs of generating the power. The ministry there is therefore currently working on rationalising the tariffs. In our opinion, consumer tariffs should generally be based on costs in order to provide consumers with incentives for saving energy and to encourage supply companies to make the right investments. Electricity prices in Greece are very low at present, partly due to cost-efficient generation in lignite-fired power stations, cheap hydroelectric power thanks to heavy rainfall in the past two years and reduced demand as a result of the economic crisis. In the coming years, there will be other factors such as the increasing use of more expensive fuels such as gas and increasing environmental costs, so prices in Greece will rise. Years of normal rainfall will reduce hydroelectric capacity, as a result of which prices will also rise. These factors will drive prices regardless of the liberalisation of the market.
In view of structural price-driving factors, it is all the more important that the systems are made as efficient as possible and that any price increases for business and domestic consumers are kept to a minimum."@en1
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