Events
Clingendael Energy Lecture "Governance of EU Energy Markets" by Jorge Vasconcelos 20 December 2005
On Tuesday 20 December 2005 Mr. Jorge Vasconcelos will give a Clingendael Energy Lecture "Governance of EU Energy Markets". Mr. Vasconcelos will extend his lecture to wider issues regarding present and future EU energy policies.
The focus of the Clingendael Energy Lecture 2005 will be on European gas and electricity markets and the current process of their far-reaching liberalisation. National legislation implementing the EU gas and electricity market directives have led to detailed rules governing the operation of those markets. Close regulatory oversight remains necessary. National regulatory authorities, including competition authorities, will therefore play an increasingly important role in delivering effective competition in energy markets across the EU. The liberalisation package entrusts a wide range of tasks to regulators, imposing on them duties and powers for effective implementation of regulatory policies. Equipped that way, they should be able to operate independently from both the industry and from national governments. If markets are to be further integrated, regulators' remits may need to be adjusted to enable them to regulate cross border network access and trading issues as well. All these questions and challenges might require a rethinking of global governance models for EU energy markets, a rethinking in which the role of national regulators in relation to both the European Commission and the EU Council of Ministers will have to be addressed.
Mr. Vasconcelos is the president of the Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos, the national energy regulator of Portugal. He also is the co-founder of the Council for European Energy Regulators (CEER). He chaired that organisation and the EU's Energy Regulatory Group for Electricity and Gas (ERGEG) until December 2005. He has been directly involved in the discussions and negotiations that have led to the EU's first and second gas and electricity market directives.