2007-06-06 20:24:52 -

LUXEMBOURG (AP) - Most of the 27 EU nations on Wednesday opposed forcing gas and electricity companies to sell off their power lines and pipelines.
The refusal underlined a standoff with the European Commission, which views a sell-off as the best way to liberalize the bloc's energy markets.
EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said at an EU

energy ministers meeting that a «majority of the countries» did not support «ownership unbundling» legislation for the gas and electricity sectors.
That opposition from the EU capitals contrasted with a statement issued Wednesday by the EU's advisory panel of national energy regulators agreeing with Piebalgs that ownership of grids and pipelines leads energy companies to discriminate against rivals and discourages investments in their networks.
«We reached no decision today pointing to ownership unbundling,» said German Energy Minister Michael Glos.
Piebalgs said the European Commission plans to draft such legislation later this year, but hinted it may have to back down.
«It is a very difficult time for the Commission to put together» an energy liberalization law, he told reporters.
His desire to see energy companies abandon their grids and pipelines stems from a recent study that found they invested less than 20 percent of profits made from high demand back into their grids to solve «serious» supply problems.
Out of ¤1.3 billion (US$1.8 billion) in revenues generated from 2001 to 2005, only ¤250 million (US$338 million) was reinvested into increased capacity, the study found.
Neelie Kroes, the EU antitrust chief who appeared before the energy ministers with Piebalgs, has said the current lack of unbundling means energy companies favor their own supply network.
She has singled out Germany, France and Italy where she says the lack of energy liberalization is most evident _ as is resistance to reform.
Germany's Deputy Energy Minister Joachim Wuermeling said Berlin welcomed «effective unbundling» of the energy industry, but believed a complete sell-off of transmission networks was too drastic and unnecessary.
He called for stricter regulation of access to networks, for «then it will be irrelevant in the end who owns the net. Ownership unbundling can only be seen as a last resort.
The EU energy regulators panel said market liberalization «must generate ownership unbundling» and provide for independent EU-wide regulation.
«Ownership unbundling of (energy) transmission should, in principle, be the model required in new EU legislation» for the electricity and gas sectors in the 27-nation EU, it said.
BusinessEurope, a lobbying group, said it was not clear that full ownership unbundling would cut prices for companies and private consumers and trigger more investments.
«We favor effective unbundling of energy and transport networks,» said Daniel Cloquet, head of industrial affairs at BusinessEurope. «But that does not mean a complete unbundling of ownership.