Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-17-Speech-2-277"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20080617.38.2-277"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, I would like first of all to congratulate all the rapporteurs, Ms Morgan, Mr Chichester, Mr Vidal-Quadras and Ms De Vits, on their excellent reports, as well as the shadow rapporteurs and all the members of the committees involved. The deadlines have been very short and the package is challenging and complicated. I have greatly appreciated all the work done over these few months and the very high level of involvement of the Members of the European Parliament.
Many amendments that are being proposed can be supported by the Commission. The majority of amendments on strengthening consumer rights in Ms Morgan’s report are welcomed, and go hand in hand with the intention in the report from Ms De Vits. The emphasis on stronger regional cooperation of network operators is also welcomed. A number of amendments also usefully clarify or complement the Commission’s proposal, in particular as regards the role of the network operator, the powers of national regulators and an effectively well-functioning and secure internal energy market.
On a number of issues, the Commission also supports the overall objective of the committee, although it may have some reservations about the precise wording of the proposals.
I again would like to emphasis that the protection of vulnerable customers and the fight against energy poverty are essential to the implementation of market opening and should definitely be strengthened. The Commission will look carefully at the wording in order to respect the principle of subsidiarity. Price regulation should also not prevent proper investment signals and market entry.
Further, as regards the report by Ms De Vits on the Consumer Charter, I find the report and most of the proposed amendments very relevant. Many of the ideas have also been taken up in Ms Morgan’s report, and the Commission can agree with many of these, not least on the need for better information to be rapidly delivered to consumers. As you know, the Commission will shortly propose to Member States an energy consumer checklist designed to help collect and deliver relevant information to consumers about their energy markets.
Indeed, I agree that possible new consumer rights need to be introduced into the ongoing legislative process and that the purpose of the charter is to better communicate on energy consumer rights and thus render them more well-known with consumers.
It will be difficult to attempt to harmonise all public service obligations at EU level. However, the Commission will monitor the correct implementation of the directives, especially to ensure that vulnerable consumers are being defined at national level and that national support schemes are being made available in a transparent and effective way.
In addition, the Citizens’ Energy Forum will be the driving force to establish competitive retail markets in the EU, while at the same time ensuring that vulnerable consumers are protected. Following the Conference on the Rights of Energy Consumers on 6 May, the Commission has launched a process of consultation with all parties concerned.
On energy efficiency and promotion of renewables, the Commission fully shares the concerns of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, but we believe that the Internal Market Directive is not the best place to discuss this subject. We believe the objectives of the committee can be pursued in the context of the new renewables directive presently under discussion.
Regarding the fight against market concentration, we share the committee’s view that this is essential, but consider that the Commission’s proposal already gives the right and powers to regulators to take measures to ensure proper market functioning.
On two important points, however, we do not fully share the conclusions reached by the committee: the use of comitology and some issues on the role of the Agency.
Let me again highlight the key challenges that we are facing. I know that they are of particular concern to this House.
On the use of comitology, the general deletion of this procedure would render ineffective the whole process of developing rapidly and efficiently new, very detailed market codes. They will be essential for moving towards truly integrated energy markets in years rather than decades. The most important issue is the ability to make legally binding on all network operators the technical codes adopted under the oversight of the Agency. For this purpose, the Commission needs to be able to adopt them in a fast and effective manner through the comitology procedure. Otherwise, they could not be legally binding within a reasonable timeframe.
In more general terms, guidelines are needed, precisely to have a strong Agency, in line with the position in the reports by Mr Chichester and Mr Vidal-Quadras. Without guidelines to frame its powers, the Agency would simply be unable to issue binding individual decisions on market players.
Provided these essential elements are preserved, in order to take account of the committee’s concerns, the Commission could, however, accept the deletion of some of the comitology procedures which, in our opinion, are less essential.
On the Agency, the Commission wants to establish an Agency with strong powers. The Commission can accept amendments which give general tasks to the Agency, and also ensures more open and transparent consultation with stakeholders. However, it is not possible to go beyond the EC Treaty.
A number of amendments proposed by the committee regarding the decision-making powers of the Agency are not compatible with the principle established by the Meroni judgment. This concerns in particular the degree of discretionary power conferred to the Agency. I fully agree with the need for a strong and effective Agency and believe that this can be achieved through the approach suggested by the Commission where the Agency will develop codes that involve real substantive discretion and that these are then adopted through comitology.
I will not end without tackling the issue of the effective unbundling of network operation from generation and supply. The current rules mean that a large number of network operators can effectively discriminate against new entrants. This has an especially stifling effect on investments in the grid and the introduction of new capacity.
The objective that we face, therefore, is to find an approach that will fully remove the inherent conflict of interest of vertically integrated network operators while providing them with the proper incentives to invest and to manage the grid in a non-discriminatory manner.
The Council reached a broad agreement on all essential parts of the package at the Energy Council of 6 June. The objective, following your vote, is to be in a position to achieve the adoption of the package at second reading at the end of this year. If the process is delayed, the package would be at risk of not being adopted before the 2009 elections. I count on Parliament and on the incoming French presidency to make full use of the months ahead in order to reach an overall agreement.
Let me stress that at the Energy Council of 6 June the Commission formally reserved its position on the package, notably to take into account your vote tomorrow.
Honorable Members, you have provided a strong input to this process since its beginning. I look forward to continuing to work together with you on these proposals in the coming months in the interest of European energy consumers.
With this far-reaching package, the Commission has one objective in mind: the interests of the citizens of the European Union.
Of course, market opening cannot as such stop oil prices from increasing. However, exactly at a time of high prices, we need to ensure truly effective competition on our energy markets to guarantee that the effects of these prices on our citizens are as limited as possible. Already now, some of Europe’s citizens have benefited from more choice and from more competition to keep prices as low as possible, as well as increasing standards of service and security.
For far too many of Europe’s citizens, however, the process of developing real competitive markets is far from complete, and they are not in a position to make a real choice of supplier.
This is not just about better prices and more choice. Ensuring security of supply will need massive investments in new networks over the next couple of decades. If we allow the status quo to continue, these investments will just not be made to the extent needed.
Furthermore, a functioning internal market is one of the key elements of the EU’s efforts to tackle climate change. Without competitive electricity and gas markets, an emissions trading scheme will never work properly and our aims regarding renewable energy will quite simply fail.
We all agree on the need for legislative reforms to remedy the numerous shortcomings of the current legislative and regulatory framework. Indeed, in the Vidal-Quadras report of 10 July 2007, the European Parliament showed its determination in achieving such an ambitious policy in the field of energy.
Let me now turn to some of the issues of the reports in more detail. Of course, the reports are very substantial and I will, therefore, focus on only some elements."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples