On October 14, the Commission organised a conference to discuss future developments of the IEM, in the context of its recently published communication “Progress towards completing the Internal Energy Market”.
The conference provided an opportunity for many stakeholders of the energy sector to provide views on how the IEM should evolve to ensure security of supply and efficiency.
In his keynote speech, EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger compared the completion of the IEM to running a marathon rather than a sprint race. The challenges have been many and well spread over time, yet the Commisson feels that many successes have been achieved, namely in integrating energy markets that were largely disconnected in the past. The Commissioner also underlined that, in respect to energy security, member states can only deepen the EU’s energy independence through effective cooperation. All solutions in this respect should however be market-driven he insisted, as stakeholders prefer to manage market risk rather than regulatory risk. This is indeed the best way to deliver efficient solutions to consumers.
For the electricity sector, the opinions expressed by the different stakeholders all had one common underlying belief: the electricity target model needs to be completed. Alongside, different improvements can be made to deliver flexibility and capacity across different timeframes so that both short and long-term system adequacy are ensured.