EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs announced yesterday he would not hesitate to press for hefty fines for any of 10 EU member states that failed to open up their gas and electricity sectors to competition fast enough. Ten EU members, including Greece, Germany and Spain, must implement energy liberalization laws within two months or face court action. “The amount of fines will be decided by the European Union court,” Piebalgs told Reuters in an interview. “They will probably be big.” However, he added that he was confident that the EU members would make the deadline. Eight of the states have failed to open their gas and electricity sectors to competition, missing a July 1, 2004 EU-wide deadline. In addition to Greece, Germany and Spain, the Commission is taking a case against Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Estonia and Latvia for failure to liberalize electricity and gas markets. Two states, Ireland and Lithuania, are in the spotlight for failing to open up their gas markets, while they have opened up their electricity markets. “I think Germany will have the most difficulties as their law is only at a very early stage in their Parliament,” Piebalgs said. “But the estimation is that the law will be amended by mid-June.”
(Reuters)