TOWARDS A FREE MARKET FOR ENERGY - A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE

This article examines the European Commission's plans to create a single or internal energy market by 1992. It analyses the Commission's programmes and priorities for action from a legal perspective, because it is argued, legal factors are not only fundamentally important to circumscribing the Commission's field of action and for determining the success of its initiatives, but also because the legal dimension offers a useful critical tool with which to appraise the feasibility of these plans. The article reviews the various legal powers which the Commission may currently deploy, and argues that they are ill-suited to the most difficult but fundamental task which faces the Community; that of reconciling the objectives of market integration through greater competition between energy suppliers with that of securing energy supply in general. It concludes by suggesting that the only way out of this dilemma lies in the formulation of a clear set of Community energy policy objectives. © 1990.