World
Institutional
links
Welcome back on
26 -29 August,
ONS 2008
Bridging
the energy gap
is ONS 2006 theme,
from 22-25 August,
in Stavanger, Norway
Petroleumworld
Business
Partners:
Centre for
Global Energy
Studies
  |
Brussels to unveil 'mechanism' to protect EU energy sector
AFP
BRUSSELS
Petroleumworld.com 09 14 07
The European Commission will propose next week a "mechanism" to restrict "non-commercial" foreign investment in the EU energy sector, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday.
"We accept and welcome investment from third countries who don't have the same rules that we have," he told reporters in Brussels.
"But we want to have a mechanism which, if needed, can be activated if behind the intervention of a company (there are) motives which are not commercial, which can influence security," he said.
Barroso said the proposals would be unveiled next Wednesday.
While he did not single out any country, Barroso suggested that the mechanism could be used in the case of Russia.
He said he found it "strange" that a company like Russian giant Gazprom can buy a European energy distribution firm while a European company cannot buy a concern producing energy in Russia.
Barroso said the EU's executive body was still working on what would be the definition of the "non-commercial" foreign investments that might set off such a mechanism.
He insisted that "it would be completely unfair to present this mechanism as some kind of protection, this is not at all a protective idea."
"We want to remain an open market but the question is, when can we intervene just in case," he said.
The Commission is also expected to propose so-called ownership unbundling or splitting up big integrated European gas and electricity groups to separate their delivery businesses from their generation and supply operations.
Many member states are opposed to the idea, partly because of concerns that the new, smaller companies would be vulnerable to takeovers from non-EU companies eager to get hold of distribution networks.
Some of those concerns are focused on Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom, which is widely known to have ambitions of gaining market share in Europe.
But Barroso said he was not overly concerned about the reception the Commission's plans would receive among the 27 EU member countries.
"You can never please everybody. We'll propose it and there will be a debate and hopefully the voice of reason will prevail. If it doesn't prevail, at least it will be clear who resists it," he said.
AFP 13 1804 GMT 09 07
Copyright© 2007 Petroleumworld. All rights reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels