10-08-00 France is putting an end to its national gas monopoly, with the distinction of opening its market less than any of its EU partners and at the last minute.
But if it had been left to the French government the market would not even be opening -- the law allowing the gas market to be opened a crack is still awaiting parliamentary approval. State-owned monopoly Gaz de France has nonetheless decided to go ahead and meet the August 10 deadline for complying with an EU decision to open the gas market to competition. Even so France is one of the last EU members to comply with the directive, with only Germany and Luxembourg still lagging behind, and has already been criticised by Brussels for failing to meet the deadline.

In the European Commission's view, the fact that GDF is willing to allow competitors in does not compensate for the lack of a law implementing the EU directive, and it will decide in September whether to take formal steps against all three laggards. And France is the only European Union member to have chosen to open its market to the strict minimum allowed under the EU directive -- and that means just 20 % of the total, limited to the largest industrial users, rising to a third of the market by 2008.
All of the other 12 countries affected by the agreement opted to go further than the minimum, and seven have opted to open up more than half of the market, with Germany and Britain throwing open the whole sector.
Two EU members, Portugal and Greece, will not open their markets immediately as they are not considered ready.