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Enron Mail |
My skepticism remains - the story was generated as a result of the Minister
getting steamed up about the lack of effective liberalisation in Europe and barriers to UK takeovers on the continent. This is nothing new - the DTI have been whinging about this for years (since EDF first arrived) but experience has demonstrated that they have little scope to take action if there isn't a competition case. Indeed the report itself recognises this: "Senior government officials said yesterday: "We are looking at ways of holding up European forays into the UK market. It may not be possible but, at the very least, we would force Brussels to intervene and impose an investigation on competition grounds, holding up the process." In the past it has been difficult to "force Brussels to intervene" if there is no competition case (and I don't think there's a great one here). The only legal option would be to invoke the reciprocity provisions of the directive. However, given that part-loading of the interconnector is one of the reasons that prices have climbed under NETA, this would be a major own goal for the DTI. We've also confirmed this with DTI officials following the Guardian report. The source was Dan Corry who is a "special adviser" - read spin doctor - to the Secretary of State. Conclusion - it's all pre-election hot air from Hain. Paul Peter Styles 10/05/2001 18:20 To: Paul Hennemeyer/LON/ECT@ECT cc: Richard Shapiro/NA/Enron@Enron, Heribert Kresse/Enron@EUEnronXgate, Andreas Radmacher/Enron@EUEnronXgate, Paul Dawson/Govt. Affairs/LON/ECT@ECT, Richard Lewis/LON/ECT@ECT, Doug Wood/LON/ECT@ECT Subject: Re: UK power sector takeovers My understanding is that this would be targetted at State-owned enterprises and/or those based in countries where market opening is < 100%. Political target is France. If State-owned, a provision could be based on the Spanish legislation invoked to block control of Hidrocantabrico by EdF through EnBW and by EdP. The responsible UK official in DTI thinks that legislation is invalid under EU treaty rules. Commission officials probably share the view. In any case such a provision would I think require UK parliamentary time to get through. The touting of the idea could be just a pre-election puff? Paul Hennemeyer 05/09/2001 10:59 PM To: doug.wood@enron.com, Peter Styles/LON/ECT@ECT cc: Richard Shapiro/NA/Enron@Enron, Heribert Kresse/Enron@EUEnronXgate, Andreas Radmacher/Enron@EUEnronXgate Subject: Oh yee of little faith. Dawson - when can we go to DTI and make big stink?? Solomon Bros reports: E.ON / POWERGEN - The Guardian reports that the UK government is looking into ways to block or hold up foreign takeovers of British energy companies. Separately, E.ON says it now has a majority stake in Sydkraft.
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