By K. Deligiannis
[email protected]
Deliberations between the government and the EU Commission over the sale of 40 percent of the state-run Public Power Corp.'s (PPC) lignite-fire production capability shift to Brussels this week.
Top officials from Greece's relevant environment and energy ministry will meet with Directorate-General for Competition's technocrats to discuss a list of units and lignite mines up for sale. The list of proposed assets up for sale was conveyed to the Commission last June.
According to repeated reports, Athens will put the Meliti I power station near Amyntaio, Florina on the selling block, along with a license for the construction of a second unit in Meliti. Several nearby lignite mines and pits will accompany the units.
The Greek side last week dismissed press reports that the Commission has rejected the proposal submitted to Brussels thus far.
Ministry officials said Athens' proposal for the sale of the specific units is based on recommendations by Lazard and McKinsey, who were hired as consultants by the ministry and PPC.
PPC, a listed power utility holds a dominant position in Greece's retail and wholesale electricity. In previous decades it operated as a horizontal and vertical electricity monopoly.
The Commission's competition watchdog wants PPC to privatize 40 percent of lignite-generated electricity in the country, in line with a European Court decision ruling that PPC's access and exploitation of the specific fossil fuel in Greece is monopolistic.
