London (Platts)--8Jun2007

Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs welcomes the signature of a
Memorandum of Understanding for the coupling of the French, German, Belgian,
Dutch and Luxembourg electricity markets into a single regional area, the EC
chief said in a statement Friday.

     The MoU was signed June 6 in the margins of the Energy Council being held
in Luxembourg and is supported by the North-West Europe Pentalateral Energy
Forum and the North-West Europe Regional Initiative led by regional
electricity regulators.

     "Regional markets are a positive step towards the creation of single
European energy market. It will bring lower prices for consumers, increased
security of supply and will attract investment in new generation capacity and
transmission infrastructure," said Commissioner Piebalgs.

     The French power exchange Powernext is already coupled with Dutch and
Belgian exchanges APX and Belpex. APX and the Nordic power exchange Nord Pool
also plan to introduce market coupling after the Dutch-Norwegian NorNed
interconnector is completed, which is expected in October 2007. In addition,
Nord Pool and EEX have previously said they plan to introduce market coupling.

     In the future the pentalateral market coupling will also incorporate the
Iberian market.

     "Once the market is coupled with eastern Europe through Germany,
important progress will have been made in creating a European wholesale market
functioning in a fairly harmonised way. This will, in turn, facilitate further
connections with more distant countries such as the Baltic States," the EC
said.

     The Commission considers the development of regional markets as an
intermediate step towards the constitution of a single European market.