Eric Stein Working Paper No 3/2009
Marija Bartl
The Affordability of Energy Supply
Cite as
Marija Bartl, "The Affordability of Energy Supply," Eric Stein Working Paper No. 3/2009, available at http://www.ericsteinpapers.eu/papers/2009-3Abstract
The Affordability is a new, rather “alien” concept penetrating into the ambit of Contract and Consumer Law, through the ‘universal service’ or ‘public service’ obligations of the Services of General Economic Interest. Its constitutional dimension will be confirmed by the Treaty of Lisbon in connection to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. This truly European Concept has been introduced in the connection with the liberalization of the utilities sectors driven by the EU as to mitigate possible negative consequences of the liberalization.The Second Energy Package comes with a quite clear idea how to provide for the Affordability of Energy Supply, however, the MS have often opted for different strategies, from various reasons. This paper will attempt to examine the efficiency of the strategies employed by the some of the Member States and spell out its relation to the EU legislation.
First part of this paper examines different Regulatory Strategies for ensuring Affordability of Energy Supply adopted in three Member States (France, Slovakia and United Kingdom) responding to the question to what extent these regulatory strategies are capable to ensure what they promised, i.e. the Affordability of Energy Supply.
The second part of the paper enters into a more detailed inquiry of the No-Regulation Strategy employed by the Czech Republic. On the basis of consumer complaints and the case law we will examine the implications of the decision not to introduce any specific measures for ensuring Affordability.
Keywords
Affordability - Consumer Protection - Universal Service - Public Service - Energy Markets - Services of General Economic InterestYou can download the paper here [pdf]
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