Hongaars voorzitterschap stemt compromis af voor regelgeving Europese energiemarkt (en)

Meeting today in Brussels, Member State representatives approved a draft compromise proposal presented by the Hungarian Presidency, aiming to close the negotiations with the European Parliament on the Regulation on energy market integrity and transparency (REMI T).

A little more than 6 months after the Commission presented its proposal, the adoption in first reading will mark a very important milestone in completing the EU acquis on the internal energy market by providing legislation on ensuring and strengthening the transparency of the wholesale energy markets and transactions. The Hungarian Presidency did its utmost to ensure an early adoption of the draft Regulation, in line with the February 4 European Council conclusions.

As the EU internal energy market for electricity and gas is becoming more and more liberalised and interconnected, the potential for abuse and manipulation is also growing. The proposed regulation sets up a framework for monitoring wholesale energy markets in order to detect market abuse and manipulation, thereby ensuring the integrity and transparency of those markets.

The central element of this framework is the establishment of a market monitoring function at the European level, a task which should be carried out by the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER i). Market abuse and manipulation relating to financial instruments in general are already covered by market abuse directive 2003/6/EC (MAD) and markets in financial instruments directive 2004/39/EC (MIFID).

At the latest trialogue meeting on 23 June, the Hungarian Presidency agreed with the delegations of the EP and the Commission on a compromise package. The compromise package consists of several policy elements:

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  The package introduces a registration scheme for market participants, including energy traders, at national level, of which national registries ACER (seated in Ljubljana) will develop a European register. ACER will have access to data on transactions on trading allowances of CO2 emissions, in order to ensure that cross-market and cross-commodity abuses will be also supervised, while noting the Commission may come up with a separate legislative proposal in an appropriate timeframe on transparency, integrity and supervision of EU carbon market.

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  The trialogue discussions have also touched upon the penalties, where an inter-institutional declaration has been agreed and elements have been introduced to set proportionate, dissuasive and effective penalties at national level, while noting the possibility of a future Commission proposal to harmonise minimum standards for Member States’ penalty systems.

A balanced compromise has been agreed on the balance of powers between ACER and the national energy regulatory authorities, the use of delegated and implementing acts in order to align and update definitions set out in the draft Regulation and determine the reporting scheme, and to ensure that ACER will be adequately resourced and staffed for its new tasks.

With the approval of COREPER i, the Presidency will now send a letter to the Chair of the EP ITRE i Committee, confirming that, should the EP adopt its position at first reading (expected at its September Plenary Session) following exactly the text as agreed – subject to revision by the lawyer linguists of both institutions – the Council will subsequently adopt the act and it could enter into force.

The European Commission presented its proposal for a Regulation on energy market integrity and transparency (REMIT) on 8 December 2010 (Commission document number: COM(2010) 0726 final; Council document number: 17825/10; number of co-decision procedure: COD 2010/0363). Detailed examination of the proposal started under the Hungarian Presidency, with the Energy Working Party meeting 18 times to discuss it, ensuring the most thorough examination of the text by energy experts. COREPER I. have put the item on its agenda 4 times and the Presidency conducted informal trialogues with the EP twice in the course of June.