Papers by Anna Marhold, PhD (EUI)
Fossil fuel subsidies harm the environment, add to health hazards caused by air pollution, and de... more Fossil fuel subsidies harm the environment, add to health hazards caused by air pollution, and delay the energy transition. Scholars and practitioners have therefore been exploring ways to reform and eliminate them. This paper discusses the practice of energy dual pricing in the broader context of fossil fuel subsidy reform. The contribution explores avenues for constraining dual pricing, which is approached as a fossil fuel subsidy, within the framework of the WTO. It does so by proposing options under existing rules, as well as suggesting changes to the system beyond current rules.
This contribution explores the interplay between liberalisation and decarbonisation of the Europe... more This contribution explores the interplay between liberalisation and decarbonisation of the European electricity market. The focus of this piece is to see whether liberalisation of the EU electricity market, in Europe realised by means of the unbundling regime, inherently promotes decarbonisation of the grid. In other words, it seeks to explore if decarbonisation of the electrical grid is a positive externality of liberalising the market, absent of any other policies promoting the scale up of renewables in the grid. To this end, it examines existing economic and econometric literature on the issue and places it in the greater context of internal energy market legislation and European energy policy.
Liberalization of the European internal market for energy by means of unbundling and third party ... more Liberalization of the European internal market for energy by means of unbundling and third party access alone is not enough to make renewable energy on a par with fossil fuels. To increase the production of renewable energy in its Member States, the EU has in place a set of legal instruments to promote the scale up of renewable energy production through i.e. setting binding targets for renewables and providing a legal framework for support schemes. However, while arguably consistent with EU disciplines pertaining to State aid, EU support schemes can easily fall foul of WTO subsidy disciplines. This article argues that EU and WTO law are disconnected paradigms in this respect: EU legislation by its design at-tempts to legitimize support schemes for renewable energy, not necessarily taking into account their consistency with the WTO ASCM. WTO law, on the other hand, currently provides too little space for subsidies that further legitimate policy goals, such as environmental protection and climate change mitigation.
Het valt niet te ontkennen dat 2016 een bewogen jaar was op het gebied van geopolitieke ontwikkel... more Het valt niet te ontkennen dat 2016 een bewogen jaar was op het gebied van geopolitieke ontwikkelingen. Voor de Europese Unie (hierna: EU) en haar lidstaten was de uitkomst van het Britse Brexit referendum in juni wellicht de meest onvoorziene gebeurtenis, één die de nodige onzekerheid met zich meebrengt op politiek en juridisch niveau. Het blijft vooralsnog onduidelijk wanneer het Verenigd Koninkrijk (hierna: VK) artikel 50 van het Verdrag betreffende de Europese Unie (hierna: VEU) zal inroepen en formeel het uittredingsproces zal beginnen. 2 Maar onontkoombaar lijkt het zeker: Brexit zal diepgaande en verstrekkende gevolgen hebben voor de eenheid van Europa, inclusief haar interne markt. Het VK zal door middel van onderhandelingen met de EU zich stapsgewijs los moeten maken van de complexe en geïntegreerde Europese regelgeving – een proces dat waarschijnlijk jaren in beslag zal nemen. Dit artikel zal één gebied belichten dat daar zeker niet ongemoeid door zal blijven: het Europese energiebeleid en de juridische implicaties van Brexit voor de interne energiemarkt. Het stuk zal allereerst sommige aspecten van het huidige Europese energiebeleid behandelen. Vervolgens zal het enige scenario's uiteenzetten over de mogelijke gevolgen van een Brits vertrek voor het Europese energiebeleid. Het zal zich vooral richten op de interne energiemarkt voor elektriciteit en gas, maar tevens wat gevolgen aanstippen voor de Europese Gemeenschap voor Atoomenergie (EURATOM) en het Europese klimaatbeleid. De algehele conclusie zal echter steeds hetzelfde zijn: Voor zowel de EU als het VK is het van belang om, ook na een Brexit, nauwe banden te houden met elkaar op het gebied van energiebeleid. Het lijkt onvermijdelijk dat Brexit op het gebied van energie de nodige uitdagingen met zich mee zal brengen voor zowel de EU als het VK. Deze zijn echter te overkomen, mits er duidelijke afspraken tussen beide partijen worden gemaakt.
The changing landscape of the European energy system is fundamentally challenging the role of Dis... more The changing landscape of the European energy system is fundamentally challenging the role of Distribution System Operators (DSOs). While drastic reforms are not warranted, national and European policy-makers should consider a number of legal and regulatory adjustments. These are at the centre of this new study on the changing role of DSOs.
This contribution discusses WTO subsidies disciplines in the context of the energy sector. After ... more This contribution discusses WTO subsidies disciplines in the context of the energy sector. After laying out the relevant disciplines, it will discuss the paradox of WTO law with respect to subsidies towards fossil fuels vis-à-vis those towards renewable energy. It is clear that subsidies on clean energy production and consumption are needed to correct market failures and to promote legitimate policy goals such as contributing to sustainable development through the scale up of clean energy, including expanding its trade. However, experience has shown that support schemes for clean energy by their nature and design make them sensitive to WTO dispute settlement. Much more harmful subsidies on fossil fuels, on the other hand, are omnipresent yet often escape being addressed in the multilateral trading system. The contribution will draw upon the examples of ‘energy dual pricing’ and Feed-In Tariffs (FITs).
It will argue that while it may be difficult to tackle fossil fuels subsidies in the WTO forum, more efforts are needed to (re)legalise environmental subsidies.
The World Trade Organization cannot deal comprehensively with restrictive export practices mainta... more The World Trade Organization cannot deal comprehensively with restrictive export practices maintained by energy cartels such as the OPEC. The main reason for this is the absence of competition rules in the multilateral trading system. However, in spite of the fact that the WTO does not have rules on competition, it does provide for other rules, such as GATT Article XI on the General Elimination of Quantitative Restrictions. This article will take a law and economics approach and explore whether restrictive practices in the energy sector as maintained by OPEC could be caught by this article. It will analyse whether OPEC’s ‘monopolist market power instrument of choice’, namely the administration of production quota on petroleum, could fall within the definition of this Article. To this end, this contribution aims to understand the economic and legal rationales and functioning of both the WTO and OPEC.
A rapid scale-up and deployment of sustainable energy sources is a critical for climate change mi... more A rapid scale-up and deployment of sustainable energy sources is a critical for climate change mitigation. Expanding sustainable energy, however, requires a holistic approach to global energy governance. The Energy Charter Treaty and the World Trade Organization are two important regimes that affect trade and investment activity in the energy sector, with consequent implications for climate change mitigation efforts. This paper examines the evolution of the relationship between both institutions, aims to identify the nature of the ever-changing nexus between the two treaties and discusses three possible scenarios for their interaction with an eye to strengthening future energy governance.
in: M Cremona and H Micklitz (eds) Private Law in the External Relations of the EU (Oxford Univer... more in: M Cremona and H Micklitz (eds) Private Law in the External Relations of the EU (Oxford University Press, 2016)
This contribution discusses regulatory private law in the energy sector as it manifests itself in the external relations of the EU. It looks at the example of the Energy Community Treaty and examines the synergy between the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) and the Energy Community Regulatory Board (ECRB) in facilitating customer protection in the Members of the Energy Community.
This article discusses the place of both the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Energy Charte... more This article discusses the place of both the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) and their role in global energy governance in the light of the fragmentation debate roughly twenty years after their establishment. The Energy Charter Secretariat (ECS), the administrative body overseeing the ECT, has taken tension and overlap between the WTO and the ECT into account by providing extensive guidelines on incorporation of WTO rules into the Treaty. This so-called ‘coordination ex ante’ was aimed at functioning as a conflict prevention tool. However, gaps, conflicts and uncertainties remain. Moreover, developments in the past two decades, such as changes in membership to both the ECT and WTO, combined with an attention shift in a rapidly changing trading landscape, invite a re-evaluation of both treaties in view of fragmentation.
The WTO can no longer afford to neglect energy. While out of focus for many decades, the realizat... more The WTO can no longer afford to neglect energy. While out of focus for many decades, the realization that the Organization needs a discourse on energy has finally sounded through to the WTO itself. During the first ever workshop on the issue at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, former Director-General Pascal Lamy emphasized the necessity of a dialogue on energy trade in the WTO. 1 Questions pertaining to the legal aspects of energy trade in the WTO can be expected to emerge with increasing frequency. But is the WTO ready and capable of addressing these issues and provide clear answers?
The Global Governance Programme (GGP) is research turned into action. It provides a European sett... more The Global Governance Programme (GGP) is research turned into action. It provides a European setting to conduct research at the highest level and promote synergies between the worlds of research and policy-making, to generate ideas and identify creative an innovative solutions to global challenges.
Tijdschrift voor Slavische Literatuur 60 (2011), Dec 2011
Tijdschrift voor Slavische Literatuur 60 (2011), Dec 2011
Talks by Anna Marhold, PhD (EUI)
It is no secret that WTO law at its core has an import bias; focusing on access to markets and el... more It is no secret that WTO law at its core has an import bias; focusing on access to markets and eliminating import barriers is central to the system. It has much weaker commitments on export barriers, which are a more vital concern in the energy sector. Consumers understandably want access to energy supplies, instead of producers seeking lower import barriers for their energy exports.
This is one of the reasons why energy in the form of fossil fuels is different from most other traded goods. There are three main causes underlying their anomaly: 1) Energy is essential for human life and development and fossil fuels are still the main source of energy the world relies on; 2) Fossils fuels are unevenly distributed around the world, a relatively small group of countries posses large quantities of them, and; 3) The first and second reason combined make that those countries that have fossil fuels can logically exercise market power over them.
This reality comes to expression through the practices of e.g. the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC). OPEC is the most famous cartel in energy at the global level, though it is currently faced with a radically changing energy landscape itself. It effectively is an international agreement among oil-producing countries, which has succeeded in influencing world oil prices above competitive levels. Hence, the cartel does not operate on the principles of free trade. Rather, it can exercise its market power (to a certain degree) by restricting its petroleum exports through administering production quotas on the production of crude oil.
Anticompetitive or not, the fact remains, however, that WTO law is not quite a ‘global competition law’: its goal is to promote trade flows through non-discrimination and to protect producers (hence, eliminate import barriers and stimulate access to markets). Consequently, potential abusive practices of global public monopolies such as OPEC will arguable not be caught easily under the laws of the WTO. Nevertheless, there are some pertinent issues that demand our attention. This presentation aims to bring some clarity by having a closer look at the law and economics of OPEC production quotas and their consistency with WTO law and its rationale.
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Papers by Anna Marhold, PhD (EUI)
It will argue that while it may be difficult to tackle fossil fuels subsidies in the WTO forum, more efforts are needed to (re)legalise environmental subsidies.
This contribution discusses regulatory private law in the energy sector as it manifests itself in the external relations of the EU. It looks at the example of the Energy Community Treaty and examines the synergy between the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) and the Energy Community Regulatory Board (ECRB) in facilitating customer protection in the Members of the Energy Community.
Talks by Anna Marhold, PhD (EUI)
This is one of the reasons why energy in the form of fossil fuels is different from most other traded goods. There are three main causes underlying their anomaly: 1) Energy is essential for human life and development and fossil fuels are still the main source of energy the world relies on; 2) Fossils fuels are unevenly distributed around the world, a relatively small group of countries posses large quantities of them, and; 3) The first and second reason combined make that those countries that have fossil fuels can logically exercise market power over them.
This reality comes to expression through the practices of e.g. the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC). OPEC is the most famous cartel in energy at the global level, though it is currently faced with a radically changing energy landscape itself. It effectively is an international agreement among oil-producing countries, which has succeeded in influencing world oil prices above competitive levels. Hence, the cartel does not operate on the principles of free trade. Rather, it can exercise its market power (to a certain degree) by restricting its petroleum exports through administering production quotas on the production of crude oil.
Anticompetitive or not, the fact remains, however, that WTO law is not quite a ‘global competition law’: its goal is to promote trade flows through non-discrimination and to protect producers (hence, eliminate import barriers and stimulate access to markets). Consequently, potential abusive practices of global public monopolies such as OPEC will arguable not be caught easily under the laws of the WTO. Nevertheless, there are some pertinent issues that demand our attention. This presentation aims to bring some clarity by having a closer look at the law and economics of OPEC production quotas and their consistency with WTO law and its rationale.
It will argue that while it may be difficult to tackle fossil fuels subsidies in the WTO forum, more efforts are needed to (re)legalise environmental subsidies.
This contribution discusses regulatory private law in the energy sector as it manifests itself in the external relations of the EU. It looks at the example of the Energy Community Treaty and examines the synergy between the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) and the Energy Community Regulatory Board (ECRB) in facilitating customer protection in the Members of the Energy Community.
This is one of the reasons why energy in the form of fossil fuels is different from most other traded goods. There are three main causes underlying their anomaly: 1) Energy is essential for human life and development and fossil fuels are still the main source of energy the world relies on; 2) Fossils fuels are unevenly distributed around the world, a relatively small group of countries posses large quantities of them, and; 3) The first and second reason combined make that those countries that have fossil fuels can logically exercise market power over them.
This reality comes to expression through the practices of e.g. the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC). OPEC is the most famous cartel in energy at the global level, though it is currently faced with a radically changing energy landscape itself. It effectively is an international agreement among oil-producing countries, which has succeeded in influencing world oil prices above competitive levels. Hence, the cartel does not operate on the principles of free trade. Rather, it can exercise its market power (to a certain degree) by restricting its petroleum exports through administering production quotas on the production of crude oil.
Anticompetitive or not, the fact remains, however, that WTO law is not quite a ‘global competition law’: its goal is to promote trade flows through non-discrimination and to protect producers (hence, eliminate import barriers and stimulate access to markets). Consequently, potential abusive practices of global public monopolies such as OPEC will arguable not be caught easily under the laws of the WTO. Nevertheless, there are some pertinent issues that demand our attention. This presentation aims to bring some clarity by having a closer look at the law and economics of OPEC production quotas and their consistency with WTO law and its rationale.