The European Union (EU) has moved closer to a competitive gas market after the research council adopted a deal that will liberalize at least 20 per cent of the EU gas market by 2000, Reuters reports.
The deal, originally struck by the EU’s energy ministers last December, was formally approved by the research council without debate.
Under the deal, which requires European Parliamentary approval, large gas consumers in Europe, including electricity generators and major industrial plants that consume more than 25 million cubic metres of gas per year, will be able to buy gas from competing gas suppliers.
To make competition possible, new gas suppliers will be given third party access to existing gas distribution networks.
The deal represents a compromise between the free-market advocates such as the UK and countries such as France which prefer a public sector monopoly. The move has been described by the UK, the current EU president, as the first real step towards opening the EU market to natural gas.
The agreement comes after nearly six years of negotiations. The EU agreed in December 1996 to open 23 per cent of its electricity market to competition in 1999 and to extend this to 30 per cent six years later.
