The EU single market for gas and electricity is due to be completed next year with the household market opening up to competition in July 2007. Industrial consumers have in theory been able to choose their supplier since July 2004.
In this perspective, and following a similar initiative for electricity last February (see EurActiv 28 Feb. 2006) the European Regulators' Group for electricity and gas (ERGEG) agreed on 25 April to launch four Regional Energy Market (REM) projects bringing together industry, regulators government and consumers, which together tackle important areas such as gas networks, crucial to security of supply.
The group, which acts mainly as an advisory body to the European Commission, says the initiative supports EU energy liberalisation objectives, by "identifying, then removing, key barriers to competition on a regional level," to quote ERGEG Chairman Sir John Mogg.
A partial response to the problems highlighted in the European Commission's 2005 Benchmarking Report and the Preliminary Findings of the DG Competition's energy sector inquiry (see EurActiv, 17 Feb. 2006), the initiative will indeed foster closer cooperation in the fields of cross-border infrastructure and information on gas availability, transparency over pricing or supply.
The four regions are defined as follows:
| Region | Countries | Lead Regulator |
| North-West | Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands | Netherlands |
| North | Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden | Germany |
| South | Spain, Portugal, Southern France | Spain |
| South - South East | Italy, Austria, Greece, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Czech Republic | Italy and Austria (co-chairs) |
The Regional Energy Markets (REMs) will report back on progress at a Madrid forum in late autumn 2006.
