The European Commission is to refer Ireland to the European Court of Justice for failing to fully transpose EU internal energy market rules.

The State could be fined more than €20,000 a day from the date of judgment if the court rules in favour of the commission over Ireland’s failure to transpose the electricity directive.

The directive should have been transposed by all Member States by March 2011.

Ireland has adopted some legislation required by the directive, but some provisions relating to rules surrounding the unbundling of transmission system operators and transmission systems have yet to be transposed.

These rules are meant to ensure that companies involved in both the generation of electricity as well as in the operation of the transmission networks cannot abuse their privileged position to prevent the access of competitors to the network.

“The Internal market is vital to tackle Europe’s energy and climate challenges and to ensure affordable and secure energy supplies to households and businesses. Delays in implementation of the EU internal energy market rules have negative effects on all market participants and are therefore not acceptable,” said Günther Oettinger, the EU Energy Commissioner.