Key and Explanations:
1. No
See para.1: Europe’s energy firms have failed to invest in networks…
2. Yes
See para.2: Energy prices vary wildly across Europe.
3. Not Given
See para.2: It is remarkably hard, for example, for gas-poor Germany to import from the neighbouring, gas-rich Netherlands.
4. No
See para.5: The risk is that concerns about security of supply may be used spuriously by those in Europe who oppose the sort of liberalisation encouraged by Ms Kroes. The likes of E.ON and EDF may claim that…
5. Yes
See para.7: If America is willing to play ball, the Commission proposes to reduce emissions by as much as 30%.
6. E
See para.4: Much has been made of the risk for western Europe of depending too heavily on Russian exports of gas.
7. B
See para.6: It would also be likely to mean lower prices, if the example of liberalised Britain over the past ten years is anything to go by.
8. F
See para.4: Last year Russia interrupted gas deliveries to Ukraine, affecting supplies in central and western Europe too.
9. C, D
See para.3: …the legal separation of energy suppliers and transporters, something that the integrated energy companies and interested governments, notably in France and Germany, are bound to oppose ferociously.
10. A
See para.4: This week it blocked oil exports passing via Belarus to Europe, though that spat was soon resolved.
11. transparent
See para.5: by striking long-term deals with powerful foreign suppliers. The Commission disagrees. Such deals are too often politically motivated and far from transparent.
12. suppliers and distributors
See the sentences in para.1 (Those “vertically integrated” energy companies such as Electricité de France (EDF) or Germany’s E.ON, widely dubbed as “national champions”…) and para.6 (…the Commission’s new policy proposes, ideally, a break-up of these companies into suppliers and distributors.)
13. competition and security
See para.6: For the gas market another means of ensuring competition and security would be finding a more diverse range of suppliers…
14. renewable sources
See para.7: Achieving either target would mean promoting cleaner cars, a more effective emissions-trading system for Europe, wider use of public transport and a sharp increase in the use of renewable sources of energy…