Saturday 9th February 2008

Concerns That Scottish Power May Be Taken Over By French State Company

Concentration Against Interests of Consumers




Mike Weir MP, SNP Westminster Spokesperson on Energy, has expressed concern at reports that EDF, the electricity giant partly owned by the French government, is aiming to take control of Scottish Power as part of a consortium bidding for its parent company Iberdrola of Spain.

Commenting on the reports Mr Weir, who has consistently called for an investigation into allegations of anti competitive practises in the energy market, said it raised very serious issues.

Mr Weir said:

“Such a takeover would lead to even greater concentration of the energy market in the UK since EDF is already a large player. At a time when there are serious concerns about whether there is anti competitive behaviour in the energy market it is clearly against the interests of consumers that there is further consolidation into the hands of a few very large companies.”


Mr Weir added that the BERR select committee, of which he is a member, is about to launch a major investigation into the UK Energy market. Mr Weir added:



“The industry regulator Ofgem has refused to get involved. It is imperative that there is a full investigation into how consumers are being served by the current market.



“There must also be specific Scottish concerns about the fate of what was a major independent Scottish company.



“EDF is about the only energy company that has expressed any enthusiasm for the UK government’s proposals to encourage new nuclear power stations. EDF has a large amount of nuclear capacity in France. Thankfully we have a Scottish government that will prevent any such developments in Scotland “