Paper Titles & Abstracts

Competitiveness appears prominently among the EU energy policy objectives. This includes of course the international competitiveness but also, in practice very significantly, internal EU competition and internal market objectives. However, given the central role of energy in the modern society and the increasing import dependency of the EU, there are other values at play. As such, maximizing competition and internal market cannot be blind to other energy policy objectives or the EU external relations. The need to include exceptions to the free movement provisions at Treaty level was conceived as necessary from the beginning. In the most basic terms, other values exist in addition to seeking to maximise competition and realise an internal market, and consequently exceptions need to be made. As far as energy is concerned, one needs only to consider the objectives of EU energy policy to see factors that compete with a pure competition / internal market objective: notably security of supply and sustainability. However, these objectives cannot be assessed only in the light of EU, instead, one has to pay more and more attention to the EU external relations also.Exemptions to the free movement are made for various reasons. These can relate to the need to secure infrastructure investments, to allow development of infant markets etc. However, in addition to these, quite objective reasons, exemptions and derogations are made for political reasons. Just consider the destination clauses cases or the E.ON Ruhrgas merger, or the new French nuclear law (the Nome Act).