"Overcoming partisan selfishness and addressing the various faces of the crisis by establishing a virtuous circle between the institutions". This is the wish of the Antitrust Authority in the communication sent to the Parliament which proposes a series of technical interventions to promote competition and competitiveness in the main sectors of the Italian market, including the energy one.
In relation to the gas sector, the Authority highlights the need to carry out a vertical separation of the monopoly phases from those in competition and for the ownership separation of the transport network and storage infrastructures currently controlled by Eni. “For this reason it is necessary to introduce specific information obligations and to expand the quantity and quality of the data to be made available. the Authority also deems it necessary for pro-competitive measures to be adopted in the short term relating to facilities for the construction of new gas import infrastructures”.
As far as energy is concerned, the report notes that wholesale electricity prices are higher than in other European countries due to the failure to upgrade the transmission networks and the scarce differentiation of the national electricity pool.
With regard to the distribution of fuels, the invitation is to rationalize the production network through measures "which favor the development of operators independent of the oil companies also through forms of aggregation of small operators and/or plant managers". The goal should be to develop a production network that is more independent from the oil companies by focusing on the use, in relations between plant owners and operators, “of all types of contracts envisaged by the law, eliminating the constraint of typification through company agreements. This would, on the one hand, introduce full autonomy of the manager with respect to the owner of the plant by encouraging, for example, forms of aggregation of small operators in the procurement activity”.
