One of the basic principles of the European Union is that the market it was designed to establish should be competitive (this was the principle the French worked so hard, partially successfully, to remove from the Lisbon Treaty). The principle makes its way into the different energy directives, either as the background against which specific obligations are to be interpreted or (as with the obligation to establish competitive pricing regimes) or as key features of the arrangements national governments are obliged to implement. The system of national regulation throughout the EU is also based on this principle; those few countries where it isn't are being forced to change.
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