One of U.K. Energy Minister Tim Eggar's aims during the 6 months of British presidency of the European Commission, which ends Dec. 31 on the eve of the single European market, was to push through a directive on third party access to the European gas supply network.
At the Council of Ministers' meeting Nov. 30, a draft directive failed to gain the support of enough governments. Although the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry claimed "large areas of acceptance" of the directive, the council effectively decided to maintain the status quo.
Eggar left the commission with a list of new proposals, including longer implementation schedules for third party access, to be considered in time for the next Council of Ministers session in April 1993. EC presidency will have passed to Denmark by then.
Simon Blakey, director of Cambridge Energy Research Associates Inc., Paris, said the rebuff to the third party access proposals was the end of an era of commission-driven attempts to reform Europe's gas industries-but not the end of the debate.
"Cracks are appearing in the traditional legal or regulatory foundations of the European gas business," Blakey said. "The commission has led national level decision makers to consider what were previously unthinkable concepts for natural monopoly industries."
Blakey believes the lack of European-wide political momentum for change will be overcome by events within the national gas industries, which are in their own way moving toward different types of liberalization.
A German court case is likely to be a watershed. Germany's Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) decided last summer that Verbundnetz Gas AG (VNG), Leipzig, was obliged to let Wintershall AG, Kassel, use the VNG grid. Wintershall wanted to supply paper manufacturer Weissenborn GmbH, based near Chemnitz.
VNG is contesting the decision of the cartel office in a high court, the Kammergericht, in Berlin. VNG had until Dec. 15 to submit its case, after which Wintershall will be given the chance to put forth its viewpoint. Wintershall does not expect the court to proceed further before February.
"Although the process will take time, it will not only point out the legal principles at stake but also the practical commercial considerations," said Blakey.
"The German government prefers to rely on the structure of existing competition law case by case to assure competitive markets. This offers an alternative to the approach that in the British style would create entirely new structures for the gas industry."
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