By an OGJ correspondent
PARIS, Oct. 7 -- For the first time, France has indicated that it would be prepared to set a date for the full opening of its electricity and gas markets, including retail markets, but Industry Minister Nicole Fontaine said she was not yet prepared to set a specific date. "Could it be 2007, 2008, 2009, I cannot say," she said, following a meeting of the European Union energy ministers Oct. 3 in Luxembourg.
In any case, Fontaine still refused the 2005 deadline—set by the commission last spring at the Barcelona summit—which also was rejected by both French President Jacques Chirac and the then-Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
Fontaine's present position marks a more flexible stance by the new French government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin. However, Fontaine indicated that "whatever the date" for full opening of the market, it could only be fixed after an "exhaustive examination" of the previous gas and electricity liberalization stages. In Barcelona, EU member countries had agreed to open up the market to all consumers, except households, by 2004.
France was satisfied at the meeting in Luxembourg that the final communiqué insisted on guaranteeing "a high level" of public service for all European consumers, a point to which the French government is particularly attached—especially after the massive demonstration of electricity and gas workers in Paris Oct. 3. The government promised the workers that their special statute and retirement pensions would not be affected by an opening of Electricité de France and Gaz de France capital, nor would the notion of "public service" be negatively impacted.
The energy ministers are to meet again Nov. 25, and Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palaccio is anxious that a global agreement be reached then on all points of dispute. These include—besides fixing the date for opening up the market to households—the "legal unbundling" of production, transportation, and distribution, which both France and Germany oppose. Germany is also opposed to an independent regulation authority.
The question of the access to gas storage is also a moot point. The commission wishes to establish "the appropriate balance between effective access to all components of the system and the right to reserve parts of the storage for public service and security of supply reasons." GdF is opposed to "liberalizing" its considerable gas storage capacity.
