Tag: Third energy package

EXCLUSIVE / EU leaders will grapple with controversial issues including shale gas development and climate change mitigation at an energy summit on 22 May, documents obtained by EurActiv show.

EU leaders concluded their two-day summit today (15 March) with an informal discussion on Russia, largely intended as a brainstorming session to prepare an EU visit to Moscow next week aimed at ‘exploring areas of mutual interest'. Much of the debate focused on energy, which EU leaders will discuss during a special summit on 24 May.

The European Commission will examine in "pragmatic way" Russia’s request to exempt its Nord Stream and South Stream gas pipelines from EU rules granting competitors access to the infrastructure, EurActiv has learned.

Future energy relations between Bulgaria and Russia could be decided on 15 November, the deadline for Bulgaria to sign a deal to build the South Stream gas pipeline across its territory. European officials say they are closely watching the developments but don’t see South Stream as a priority. 

Russia’s Gazprom will split its European assets to meet requirements of EU’s "third energy package" and avoid anti-trust claims by the European Commission, Russian news media reported. The Commission said it had no comment on the reports.

Russia told impoverished Moldova yesterday (12 September) to choose between low-priced gas from Russia and its pledge to adopt European energy liberalisation measures opposed by Moscow, which is girding for a conflict with Europe over natural gas.

SPECIAL REPORT / Brussels grandees claimed that the liberalisation of Europe’s energy sector would take the edge off electricity bills but as the EU prepares to evaluate the policy three years on, unease about its benefit for consumers shows no sign of abating.

The Russian Ambassador to the EU slammed the bloc's inability “to move backwards” on some issues, but also pleaded for reaping the complementarity of European and Russian economies. The remarks were made yesterday (29 May) at a briefing in preparation of the 3-4 June EU-Russia summit.

Bulgaria and Russia have agreed that a final investment decision on the South Stream gas pipeline will be taken in November. Russia is speeding up construction of the pipeline, which will bring Russian gas through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and countries further west.

EU rules designed to boost third-party participation in Russian pipelines shipping gas to Europe could trigger legal steps by Russia, the head of Gazprom said in an interview with a German newspaper published today (26 January).

Both the EU-favoured Nabucco pipeline and its Gazprom-sponsored competitor South Stream will "most probably" get a derogation from the Third Energy Package, the EU's legislative framework that provides competitors with free access to pipeline networks, Bulgarian Energy Minister Traycho Traykov announced today (14 July). EurActiv's partner in Bulgaria, Dnevnik, reports.

Amid growing demand for natural gas, politicians are being urged to improve networks as a regional approach to cross-border connections is still "sadly missing," industry representatives told a Brussels conference on Wednesday (24 February).

European policymakers, consumer groups and energy industry representatives have endorsed a set of voluntary guidelines for good practice in energy billing, in an attempt to placate dissatisfied customers.

The European Parliament yesterday (22 April) endorsed an agreement struck by the EU institutions to curtail the power of energy giants and move closer to a truly internal gas and electricity market. However, critics said the measures did not go far enough in breaking up energy monopolies.

EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has announced his intention to propose a new EU-wide energy regulator, with equal powers to national regulators, and to push for greater independence of national watchdogs.

Questions are being raised about the quality and effectiveness of evaluating the costs, risks and benefits of the Commission's impact assessment on the third energy liberalisation package, says Jacopo Torriti in a May 2008 report for the European University Institute.

EU regulators launched a formal investigation against GDF on Thursday (22 May) just as Brussels and Paris are engaged in intense negotiations over the liberalisation of energy markets.

Amid concerns over rising energy prices, the Commission is preparing a new online information pool on the rights of energy consumers, while MEPs in the Parliament's Industry Committee have voted for stronger consumer protection measures in the EU's energy market liberalisation drive. 

Dominique Maillard, head of the French electricity network operator RTE, explains why he believes splitting up energy firms is unnecessary in France. He spoke to EurActiv.fr just days after German energy giant E.ON stunned Europe by offering to sell off its electricity transmission network.

Energy ministers from the 27 EU member states held a "lively discussion" on the Commission's controversial proposal to split up energy firms, agreeing only to send the matter back to diplomats in view of a deal in June.

In an unofficial paper, the Commission condemns an alternative proposal on energy liberalisation for not going far enough to ensure energy firms keep their supply and production activities separate from network operations (so-called 'ownership unbundling').

Commenting on the European Commission's third energy package, Philippe de Ladoucette, president of the 'Commission de régulation de l'énergie', the French energy regulator, says that he is in favour of an EU agency for cooperation between European energy regulators. He spoke to EurActiv France in an interview.

A new battle has begun over the next round of energy liberalisation. Commission proposals to complete the EU's internal market for gas and electricity are leaving France and Germany in a quandary, with EDF and E.ON facing either the dismantling of their transmission assets or tight regulatory restrictions.