There is no necessity to unbundle

On Tuesday the 3rd of July, the Upper House spoke with the Minister of Economic Affairs about the Royal Decree to implement the unbundling articles in the Independent Network Management Act. The cabinet parties in the Upper House submitted a motion stating that the minister's arguments in favour of unbundling within a short timeframe are insufficient, and they plead for the Royal Decree to come into effect on the 1st of July 2009. This will mean that the energy companies will have to have realised the separation into a network component and a commercial component down to ownership level on the 31st of December 2011. The minister will discuss this motion with the cabinet and will weigh the opinions of the Upper House, Lower House and the cabinet before reaching a decision.

Essent's reaction to these developments: 'We have worked very hard over the last few years to prevent the unbundling of energy companies. Unfortunately, we were not successful. Although we feel that the cabinet is making an error of historic proportions by implementing the Unbundling Act, we will continue to work ambitiously on our objective; to take a prominent position on the European energy market. This is why we will continue the preparations for the merger with Nuon. Together with Nuon we will form a strong Dutch energy company on the North-Western European energy market. This will allow us to make a considerable contribution towards securing Dutch energy provision and its sustainability. This is in the best interest of our customers, our employees and our shareholders.'

Published: 06 July 2007