Centrica : Iain Conn holds reception in Brussels

On his first visit to Brussels since becoming CEO of Centrica, Iain met a group of stakeholders and set out his views on the challenges for European energy markets and the major changes in the way customers are re-shaping the demand function for energy. The upcoming legislative initiatives on the power market design and energy efficiency are key milestones, which - if developed correctly - will be essential to building a framework that allows the EU energy sector to work with consumers and deliver affordable, clean and secure energy.

Some key points in Iain's speech:

While Iain cannot and would not tell Centrica's 30,000 UK employees or 11.4 million UK customers how to vote he is personally strongly in favour of the UK remaining in the EU for the following reasons -

• Greater influence in trade and geo-strategically;
• Privileged membership terms to the EU economic bloc; and
• European prices are the price setting mechanism for UK imports of energy.

Regulation must enable innovation and the expansion of more sophisticated offers while dealing with concerns over data privacy.

Focus on consistency of policy: market participants can cope with complexity as long as it is predictable

Read the speech in full