EC charges France with failing to meet gas directive deadlines

By an OGJ Online Correspondent

PARIS, May 9 -- France will be brought before the European Court of Justice for its failure to meet agreed deadlines for the partial deregulation of the country's gas market, following the European Commission decision Tuesday to initiate legal action.

EC Energy and Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said France's refusal to stick to the timetable set out by the Gas Directive for liberalization of all European gas markets, targeting a European single market by 2005, would "handicap completion of the internal gas market and the creation of fair competition conditions."

France's parliament not only failed to import the directive into French law when it came into effect last Aug. 10, but also failed to inform EC that it had pushed back submission to parliament of the relevant draft law beyond next April's presidential and legislative elections.

Only Germany has joined France among European Union member states in not bringing the directive into force, though Germany says it will do so in the coming months (OGJ, Jan. 1, 2001, p. 23).

During the EU ministerial summit in Stockholm in March, France and Germany had managed to avoid committing to a date for total liberalization of both gas and electricity markets -- broadly agreed to be 2005 -- in favor of making the transition only "as soon as possible."

Several EU countries, including Spain, accuse France of protectionist policies that benefit the state-owned Electricité de France and Gaz de France at the expense of neighboring European states already at a more advanced stage of their liberalization programs.

France reportedly is expecting the EU Court of Justice to take up to 2 years to examine the case, giving its government time to work the directive into French law.