News type
Date end
News memo
7 March 2007) EPSU organised the energy conference to consider the European Energy Package of the European Commission and to discuss with representatives of the trade unions and (European) works councils the implications. The energy package was introduced by the Commission Deputy Director General Energy Fabricio Barbaso, who underlined the need to address climate change and dependency and argued that the energy package also had a job creating potential. The Commission remains convinced that the internal market electricity and gas should be pursued.
The Luxembourg European Parliament Member Claude Turmes (European Greens) stressed that choices for a sustainable energy future have to be made now as many power plants are replaced. Investment decisions made now determine the energy use for the next 30 years. Energy efficiency is a key part of any strategy to reduce energy consumption and that should also be part of the EU dialogue with China. While he saw ownership unbundling of transmission networks and especially when in public ownership still as important to have fair competition, he was more critical of proposals of the Commission regarding ownership unbundling of distribution networks.
This was echoed forcefully by Gert de Block of CEDEC and representing the local power companies. He detailed how the Commission shifted its position from addressing market concentration to making ownership unbundling of Transmission and distribution networks the key. Ownership unbundling of DSOs would lead to further concentration and privatisation. Prof. Steve Thomas of the University of Greenwich challenged the argumentation of the Commission for ownership unbundling especially since competition on wholesale markets is limited. He called proposals to have ownership unbundling of small distribution companies economic vandalism.
Representatives of the industry and EPSU social partners Eurogas and Eurelectric also voiced skepticism on the proposals. The Eurelectric representative also introduced the Role of Electricity project of Eurelectric which is based on a scenario to demonstrates how emission reduction targets and renewable targets can be met at a lower costs then current policies. Representatives of RWE, Alwin Fitting and EDF, Bernard Caron introduced the positions of their companies. Both companies are opposed to ownership unbundling. Mr. Fitting outlined the future strategy and investments of the company including in clean coal technology and a carbon free coal fired powerplant. The representative of EDF further presented the EDF human resource policy and the role of the European Works Council. The company is also positive about the agreement it negotiated with the trade unions (and including PSI, EPSU’s global sister federation) on Corporate Social Responsibility. The
German European Parliament Member Herbert Reul (European Christen democrats) expressed his concern over the Commission’s proposals’ on ownership unbundling. "Why break up well functioning companies ? I do not see that ownership unbundling will lead to more investment for example in cross border interconnections". He also voiced concern that the Commission would intervene in the national energy mix. He underlined the need for a consistent European energy policy which is not decided in the spur of the moment and which keeps several options open. Joel Decaillon of ETUC stressed the importance of addressing climate change and taking the social aspects of the (transition) measures into account. The general interest and ensuring a right of access to energy for all, are important issues for ETUC.
The second day focused on the implications of the European energy policy for the European works councils and the trade unions. Steve Thomas presented a paper on the concentration in the sector and corporate strategies. Pascal Riandey of Secafi, a French union consultancy and Jean-Jacques Paris detailed the case of the merger Suez-GdF from the perspective of Suez and the EWC. The secretaries of the RWE EWC Uwe Tigges and the Gaz de France EWC Martine Feuillerat gave examples of what EWCs can do to improve the position of the EWC. The EWC of RWE has negotiated an agreement on restructuring and the EWC of GdF took the company to court for violation of the information and consultation rights (and won !).
Several panels provided further insight in the work of the EWCs with cases of Vattenfall, EDF, CEZ and ENEL being presented on the first day and the situation from the perspective of unions in the New Member States on the second day (ENEL, Romania; EDF, Poland; EVN, Macedonia and Eon, Bulgaria). The final panel concluded that more work is needed on:
- The role of EWCs in Outsourcing
- Energy and Public Service (addressing fuel poverty, democratic control)
- Continuation of a critical view on the internal market and ownership unbundling.
Source Info
News date