Editing Energy liberalisation (section)

== Europe ==
In the [[European Union]], a strong policy of liberalisation of the European energy markets was pursued by the [[European Commission]] in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century. The first liberalisation directive for the electricity markets was adopted in 1996 and for the gas markets in 1998. The next directives were adopted in 2003.<ref name="eu_liberation_overview">[https://web.archive.org/web/20151227012319/http://ec.europa.eu/competition/sectors/energy/overview_en.html Energy and environment – Overview.] European Commission (archived version 27 Dec 2015)</ref> It was replaced by Directive 2009/72/EC of 13 July 2009,<ref name="eu_directive_2009">[https://www.eumonitor.eu/9353000/1/j9vvik7m1c3gyxp/vi8rm3019vzj Directive 2009/72/EC concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity and repealing Directive 2003/54/EC], 13 July 2009</ref> following a proposal by the [[European Parliament]] and the [[European Council]] in 2007 concerning separation of supply and generation or production activities.<ref name="eu_proposal_market">[https://www.eumonitor.nl/9353000/1/j4nvke1fm2yd1u0_j9vvik7m1c3gyxp/vkcwedq7icz9/v=s7z/f=/com(2007)528_en.pdf Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2003/54/EC concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity], 19 Sep 2007 [COM(2007) 528]</ref>

An analysis of [[Public Services International|PSIRU]] states that it seems that the European Commission's liberalisation directives were motivated more about taking control of electricity from national governments, creating large European electricity companies that can compete strongly in the world market and destroying nationally owned monopoly companies, rather than a belief in the market.<ref name=thomas2004 />