EU aid will be sought to break energy monopoly

The Majorcan Socialist Party (PSM) will seek European Union (EU) aid in putting an end to the energy monopoly in the Balearics, party leader Pere Sampol said yesterday. He said that the Eurodeputies will be asked to bring pressure to bear on the central government, to solve the energy monopolies in the Balearics, the Canary Islands and the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Sampol, who is also Balearic minister of commerce and industry, said that the situation was discriminatory for the people of the Balearics. Measures should be drawn up, he said, to guarantee that residents and companies in the Balearics do not pay more for energy than subscribers in the Peninsula. Energy was liberalised in Spain on January 1, and, Sampol said, “now is the time for an end to be put to the monopoly in the Balearics” which is present both in generation and supply. He said that there are no offers of prices because there is no competition, so the conditions should be set up so that other energy companies could compete in the Balearic market. Sampol was speaking after a meeting to discuss end of legislature of the PSM-Valencian nationalist coalition in the European parliament, represented by Eurodeputies Carles Gasóliba and Joan Vallvé. Also discussed was the admission of two new island states, Malta and Chipre, to the EU which the PSM see as “highly positive” for the Balearics, as more attention will have to be given to the problems affecting island regions. The Balearic government has already established contacts with Malta.