"An open, fair internal energy market is essential for Europe to be able to face the challenge of climate change, growing dependency on imports and worldwide competition". José Barroso, president of the EU Commission, has been working over the last few months at developing new regulations to "revive the energy policy" in the 27 member states. The bills of law that have been submitted in Brussels today include a directive on electricity, one on gas, and three regulations, including one that "establishes a European Agency for cooperation between the national authorities that regulate the energy sector". This third law package is related to the decisions taken during the Council of the Heads of State and Government last March, "inspired by an approach which gives pride of place to the consumer’s choice, fairer rates, clean energy and safer energy provisions". In addition, the EU Commission aims at ensuring that "the smaller businesses that invest in renewable energy sources will have access to the energy market". A market that should preferably be "competitive", which "would make for safer energy provisions, thus promoting investments in power plants and power grids". (continued)
