Germany: EU Commissioner suggests power transmission being nationalised

State ownership will provide a faster and more uniform expansion of the transmission networks, says German EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger.

In an interview in the German magazine Stern, EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger argues that the networks for transmission of electricity should be run by a public company. In order to accelerate the development, he suggests to partially nationalise the hitherto private electricity networks.

This will be better for investment and expansion of the networks and a long term view, he says:

"It would not be cheaper for the consumer, but the expansion of the networks will run faster and be more uniform," says Günther Oettinger to the magazine.

Read the article in Stern magazine (German).