ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the historical development of energy market liberalisation and energy trading in the European Union (EU) from a regulatory perspective. It portrays the political climate and legislative developments adopted at the EU level in order to integrate national energy markets into EU-wide energy markets. The chapter focuses on electricity and gas, as the EU energy acquis focuses to a large extent on the regulation of these sectors. By contrast, EU energy regulation has not similarly touched upon oil markets because of their very different character from electricity and gas: oil markets are international in nature and they are not as dependent on infrastructure as electricity and gas. The chapter follows the developments of the EU energy market’s liberalisation from the 1980s onwards, and addresses some of the future challenges that have an impact on the (regulation of the) energy sector.
