The Competition Objective

Abstract

Abstract The goal of promoting competition in European energy markets has always had to jostle for policy space alongside two other important concerns: on the one hand, the provision of energy security in a region characterized by a high and growing dependence on external sources for its primary energy consumption and, on the other, the achievement of environmental sustainability. Their uneasy co-existence has been a much noted feature of European energy policy over the years, particularly since the competition goal acquired the status of primus inter pares with the internal market programme since the late 1980s. Very recently, the competition goal appears to have experienced a relative decline, even as the internal energy market programme has begun to make a real impact.