Belgian producers are not alone in selling off free rights at a price. According to figures produced by the EU Commission at the request of Groen! MEP Bart Staes, the total of what are being called "windfall profits" will by 2012 have reached €71 million in only five member states: Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland and the UK.

Electrabel maintains it has done nothing wrong, claiming that administering the system of emission rights costs money and that someone has to pay. While business clients were billed, ordinary households paid nothing - although of course businesses pass the cost on to consumers in the end. Greens, together with the CREG, are now pressing the federal government to levy a windfall tax on the rights money, which would then be reinvested in alternative energy sources and power-saving measures.