Research Information System
in: The Growth-Oriented Economic Policy of the EU, Angelo Santagostino,Burçak Müge Vural, Editor, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle Upon Tyne, pp.1-335, 2020
The
integration of European energy markets: electricity and gas markets, has been
investigated. As of the early 1990s, individual energy markets were mainly
dominated by monopolists in Europe. Through some targets and actions, European
Commission and the member states have taken steps towards the unification and
liberalization of these markets. Since the declaration of the First Energy
Package in 1996 for electricity and in 1998 for gas, the legal conditions of
the integration process have been outlined and started to be enforced. This
study analyzes the convergence of electricity and natural gas prices in Europe
with recent data from Eurostat. Although there are differences across markets,
it looks like the price differences are becoming smaller. Especially for the
non-household or industrial energy consumers, the pay differentials are small and
convergence in prices is slightly more. If a comparison between the two energy
markets is made, the price convergence in electricity market overall is more
than the price convergence in the natural gas market.