madam president can i first of all say that my colleague mr vidal-quadras sends his apologies
he is not able to take up his slot
he has urgent business elsewhere but he asked me to say which was very nice of him that the two of us agree that i will speak on behalf of our group
i would like to pick up one or two points that have come up in the debate
the first is the colleague who expressed concern that we will end up with a concentration of power in very few utilities
should that happen the commission possesses powers under the competition rules to address that and we have precedent in other parts of the world including the united states where they have tackled entrenched monopoly or dominant market power
so that is the ultimate resort should this legislation fail
should we come back for a fourth package
i have to remind the commissioner that i urged upon him caution in embarking upon the third package that it would be better to wait and see what the second package achieved once it was implemented
i think now we must allow time for this package to be transposed to implement it and see how it works before deciding whether anything is needed
i have to say that my disappointment about our lack of success in tackling ownership unbundling is offset by my optimism about the possibility of the agency imaginatively using the powers that we have given it to deal with the situation and i would like to thank my other colleague who demands more power for the energy regulators
market forces are already moving in this direction
two german utilities are divesting themselves of their transmission systems because they have realised there is better value in doing that
finally could i restate the case for competition
it means better value and service for consumers and it means a more efficient use of resources
that is why it is a good thing to do
