A cosy system that spells disaster for Europe's key industries

1st July 2006
By Philippe Varin

The largest energy users in Europe have much to complain about, and one of the most articulate of these is Philippe Varin, CEO of Corus. He highlights three areas of market failure — ‘the inability to provide predictability, to guarantee availability and to offer competitive prices’. From any perspective that is a fundamental failure. For industries for which energy, and especially electricity, is a significant part of their production, it is little short of disastrous…