WRITTEN QUESTION E-0626/02 by Concepció Ferrer (PPE-DE) to the Commission. The electricity market.
Date: 2002-03-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: competition policy, electrical industry, energy grid, gas industry, infringement procedure (EU), liberalisation of the market, market access, restriction on competition

C 205 E/178

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

29.8.2002

The Commission would refer the Honourable Members to its previous answer to written question
E-3675/01 by Mr Marínos (3) concerning Cedefop’s recruitment policy and in particular the Court of
Auditors statement in their report of December 2001 that many of the appointments made by Cedefop
were ‘insufficiently justified’.

Hard copy and electronic information (http://www.cedefop.eu.int/) on Cedefop,
its tasks, activities and
products (‘Cedefop in brief’) is available in all 11 official languages of the Community. Efforts are made to
ensure that summaries of major Cedefop reference publications are published in all official languages (e.g.
‘Training and learning for competence, Second report on vocational training research in Europe’). The vast
majority of Cedefop’s information resources available in the European Training Village (www.trainingvil-
lage.gr) are provided in English, French, German and Spanish as well as the European Journal ‘Vocational
Training’ (4)). Cedefop publishes quarterly an information bulletin (Cedefop Info) in English, French and
German.

(1) OJ L 39, 13.2.1975.
(2) See also answer to written question E-2549/98, OJ C 118, 29.4.1999.
(3) OJ C 147 E, 20.6.2002.
(4) The European Journal exists also in Portuguese but this version is being undertaken by the Portuguese authorities.

(2002/C 205 E/190)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0626/02

by Concepció Ferrer (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(6 March 2002)

Subject: The electricity market

A recent Commission report on the opening-up of the electricity markets has drawn attention to the
existence of substantial distortions within the internal market, notably concerning excessive network access
charges.

Does the Commission intend to take any action to require the Member States to end this state of affairs,
given that it represents a major obstacle to firms’ competitiveness?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(17 April 2002)

As stated in the conclusions to the report (1), the Commission believes that the solution to this problem lies
in the rapid implementation of its proposals to extend market opening and strengthen the degree of
unbundling and regulatory scrutiny of network access.

Of course other specific action cannot be ruled out in the case where current directives are infringed or
where there are violations of Community competition law. Infringement procedures have already been
implemented against Belgium for the electricity directive (2), and Germany and France for the gas
directive (3) as a result of delays and non implementation of part or all of the provisions of these directives.

The Commission intends
developments. Further
proposals may result from such monitoring.

to update the benchmarking exercise on an annual basis to examine
infringement procedures, Commission recommendations or more legislative

(1)
First (‘benchmarking’) report on the implementation of the internal electricity and gas market SEC(2001) 1957.
(2) Directive 96/92/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 1996 concerning common rules for the

internal market in electricity, OJ L 27, 30.1.1997.

(3) Directive 98/30/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 concerning common rules for the

internal market in natural gas, OJ L 204, 21.7.1998.