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Energy liberalization and the EU reform treaty

26 Jun 2007 - Bruno Prior

One of the things that made me laugh in the BBC's typically-rigorous reporting (I think in last night's Newsnight) of the proposed EU reform treaty was the claim that the extension of Qualified Majority Voting would bring benefits such as the opportunity to force the break-up of national energy monopolies. Isn't that already required under existing agreements on deregulation of European energy markets? QMV is more likely to enable the majority of our partners who would rather protect their "national champions" at all cost to backtrack on this sort of requirement. You may notice that Sarkozy has been successful in watering down the EU's commitment to free trade, and is busy going round spouting off about how we should all copy France's marvellous (and so successful) protectionist industrial policies. This is the shape of things to come.

How desperate do you have to be for something good about the treaty to come up with this as an example?

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