The liberalization of the electricity industry: the path to the EU internal market

The focus of the doctoral dissertation is based on an examination of the trends of liberalization and the creation of the internal electricity market in the EU. Therefore, the main research goal is focused on the process of formation of the internal market. The process of formation of the European electricity market and fair competition, however, in addition to the regulatory framework and its own dynamics is determined by concrete measures from the portfolio of energy and climate policy. That is why the secondary research goal examines the compliance of European instruments - Emissions Trading, promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency -- with the process of market creation. Author describes in detail the genesis of the EU energy policy and liberalization packages, and states that liberalization has always been part of efforts to create a single market and to break vertical integration in the electricity industry. When determining the current state of spot markets integration, fractional cointegration analysis is used to examine the state of market integration among selected European electricity markets. Johansen test proves that only a limited number of selected markets show the integration. As for the interactions between internal market creation and tools of the EU energy policy, the emission trading scheme and the measures to promote energy efficiency have no negative impact on the internal electricity market creation. On the other hand, promotion and implementation of renewable sources of energy are identified as the source of significant divergence.