Energy Market Restructuring and Competition Regulation

This article examines the energy market restructuring in EU after the gradual liberalisation process of previous years and defines the application of European competition law to this framework of restructuring. We firstly present the different aspects of this restructuring and second we highlight the existing restrictions on this process. In the second part of this article, we focus on the steps taken mainly by EC Commission, in order to control the concentrations in energy market, which derived from the gradual involvement of the private sector in the market and the lift of barriers in energy market, while we highlight the major points concerning competition regulation, which are related to the effort for the establishment of a European single energy market. We analyse - by underlining as well issues of methodology and using relevant ECJ case law - the general framework of the application of competition rules to energy market, under a scope of combination of sectoral and general rules and under a perspective of an establishment of a hybrid status for European energy markets, a status that combines the need for markets' opening to competition with other objectives such as the protection of consumers, prevention of cartels and security of supply