Competition and Energy Markets: What Role for Competition Policy in the Current Geopolitical Context?

Competition and Energy Markets is a pivotal and timely volume that provides guidance on how to address the crucial trade-offs that arise when competition policy meets other challenging European objectives. The extraordinary double crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine has given rise to an unusual geopolitical dilemma for the EU institutions – especially in the energy sector – of ensuring the security of energy supply and upholding committed emission targets concurrently.

What’s in this book:

This compendium comprises contributions from eminent practitioners and academics, members of the European Commission, and representatives of national competition authorities, who address various issues around the new energy dilemma concerning the following aspects:

• affordability of energy prices
• EU energy infrastructures
• solidarity amongst Member States
• reform of the electricity market design and competition enforcement
• fitness and appropriateness of EU State aid tools, and
• competition enforcers’ perspectives

The book is a revision of papers and presentations given at the 2023 Annual Conference of the Global Competition Law Center (GCLC) of the College of Europe.

How this will help you:

Although other constraints beyond the security of supply and the path towards a green economy exist, they do not alter the trade-offs’ existence but make them even more problematic and unavoidable. Consequently, all professionals and officials shaping energy policy will greatly appreciate this invaluable book. For practitioners, policymakers and academics working on competition law, the book will provide valuable food for thought and guidance in the years ahead.

Contents:
Introduction

PART I: The New EU Energy Dilemma
CHAPTER 1. Securing Gas Supplies Through an Integrated European Energy Market
CHAPTER 2. State Aid Control and Energy Markets in a Time of Crisis
CHAPTER 3. The EU Energy Transition: Realism Confronts Dogma

PART II: Affordability of Energy Prices
CHAPTER 4. From the Implementation of Emergency Interventions to the Review of Market Design: How Two Years of Energy Price Crisis Have Changed the European Electricity Market
CHAPTER 5. Energy Prices, Consumers and Market Stability: In Search of a Viable Equilibrium – A Synthetic Approach to the Greek Market Case Study
PART III: EU Energy Infrastructures and Solidarity Amongst Member States
CHAPTER 6. Complete Markets to Complete the Energy Transition
CHAPTER 7. The Impact of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, REPowerEU and State Aid Rules in Ensuring a Level Playing Field Within the EU

PART IV: The Reform of the Electricity Market Design and Competition Enforcement
CHAPTER 8 The Return of Long-Term Contracts for Electricity Purchase: Implications for Competition Policy
CHAPTER 9. A Sharper Tool to Tackle Market Abuse: The Proposed Reinforcement of REMIT and Lessons Learnt from Competition Enforcement
CHAPTER 10. The Potential for Using EU Competition Tools and Regulation to Tackle the Energy Crisis
CHAPTER 11. Should ‘Green’ Merger Control Be Allowed to Shift the Burden of the Energy Transition?

PART V: EU State Aid Tools: A Fitness Check of Their Appropriateness to Solve the EU Energy Dilemma
CHAPTER 12. The Implications of the Proposed Electricity Market Design Reform on Competition Policy and Notably State Aid Control
CHAPTER 13. The Revised State Aid Toolkit: Fit to Address the Energy Dilemma?
CHAPTER 14. Emergency State Aid Rules in the Energy Sector: A Temporary Episode or a Long-Lasting Legacy?

PART VI: Competition Enforcers’ Perspectives on the Energy Dilemma
CHAPTER 15. Tackling the Crisis from Energy to Inflation Through the Competition Lens: An Austrian Perspective Contribution to the Annual GCLC Conference
CHAPTER 16. Energy Markets in Troubled Times: The Spanish Response