EC to take legal action on energy

The European Commission has today launched legal action against 25 Member States, including Ireland, for not opening up their energy markets to competition.

The Commission has sent a letter of formal notice to the countries which is the first step in infringement proceedings.

It alleges that the offending countries are not complying with European Union rules on fair competition in the electricity and gas market.

The 25 Member States accused are Ireland Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden and Britain.

In the case of Ireland, the Commission said that energy capacity in the Ireland-UK-France power region is not allocated in a transparent way and that there is poor coordination of ‘congestion management’

The Commission also said that Ireland has not yet notified it regarding what penalties it has put in place to ensure compliance with Community law in the energy market.

“In this time of economic and financial crisis, it is simply unacceptable that the European consumers and companies suffer the burden of an ill-functioning energy market," said EU Energy Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs.

"The Commission is determined to take all necessary action to ensure that European consumers can benefit from real choice, better prices, and enhanced security of supply that only an open and competitive market can provide," he added.

Normally, a Member State has two months to reply to a formal letter of notice, outlining what measures it is taking to comply.