Heartened by the Green Paper on energy, presented by the Commission on 8 March, the Commissioners for competition and the internal market are now starting to talk tough.
Thus, Charlie McCreevy has warned, "Member States, large and small: when it comes to tackling protectionism, I will not stand idly by." The Commissioner, speaking at the London School of Economics on 9 March added: "Does anybody really think that I am going to turn a blind eye to the cosy old-boy networks between politicians and managers of companies?...The time for compromise and shilly-shallying is over. The competitiveness challenge in Europe is too big and too urgent."
Meanwhile competition commissioner Neelie Kroes signaled that she will look into companies that are able to block rivals from entering the market by way of controlling both the supply and distribution of energy. "When owners and operators of critical networks compete with companies that need to have access to these same networks, we cannot guarantee that the competitors will be treated in a fair manner. Personally, I find full structural unbundling quite tempting. We should reflect further on this issue in a European context," Kroes said.
The comments come after a recent wave of mergers in the European energy sector marked by high level political interventions.
