The European Commission rejected the European Parliament’s request for an international conference on Temelin. The decision is based on the Czech Republic’s intention not to participate on the conference. The EC decision raised a fury in Austria; positive for CEZ.
IEA (International Energy Agency) has joined the EU and the Czech Anti-Monopoly Office in expressing concern related to the Czech government’s power-sector privatization strategy. IEA director Robert Priddle said that it is necessary to separate the transmission business from generation assets and distributors (all assets are to be sold to a single owner, according to the privatization strategy). Importantly, he said that at least the management and the accounting of the transmission business should be separated from the electricity generation assets.
In actual fact, the management and accounting separation has already taken place (the generation assets are operated by CEZ, the transmission is operated by its subsidiary, CEPS). We expect this to be the main supporting argument for the joint privatization used by its advocates in the dispute with the AMO over competition in the sector. We do not expect the privatization strategy to be changed; therefore, the information should have little impact on the stock.
A team of international experts (from MAAE) completed another safety assessment at CEZ’s Temelin nuclear power plant and will report its findings today.
(All information from the Czech Press Agency).
(Jiri Soustruznik)