The deregulation process of electricity and gas markets in the European union and the influence of energy prices on inflation

Energy markets are developing worldwide at rapid rates and they are playing an important role in the economy of each country. In recent years an effort has been made for the suppression of the government owned monopolies and the promotion of competition in the energy sector. The scope of this paper is to present the energy markets of 6 European Union countries and specifically in Finland, Italy, Holland, Germany, Sweden and Greece, placing special research interest in the course of energy deregulation and more concretely the deregulation of electricity and natural gas markets, as well as, the investigation of the effect that energy prices have on the inflation for the period 2002-2006. Results showed that in the economically developed countries of Europe the efforts for the deregulation of energy have had successful results, despite the problems which continue to exist. On the contrary, in Greece the attempt for the reformation and deregulation of the energy market remains in a fundamental stage and there has not been an essential progress.