At a meeting of European energy ministers in Luxembourg on Monday 11 June, the Council of the EU finalised its stance (general approach) on the revised draft regulation on the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) with a view to trialogue talks with the European Parliament.
The text updates the 2009 regulation on the ACER by revising the operation, role and missions specific to this European agency. Created in 2011 with a seat in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the agency aims to strengthen coordination between national energy regulators on cross-border matters.
Since its establishment, ACER has received new and important missions concerning wholesale market supervision and the field of cross-border energy infrastructures.
The new regulation aims to further improve coordination between national electricity and gas regulators by updating the tasks entrusted to the agency.
The ACER updating process mainly covers the tasks entrusted to its director and the board of regulators, composed of high representatives of the national energy regulation authorities. There is a redefinition of the breakdown of tasks between the ACER management board and the director.
“After intense negotiations, the agreement is balanced and offers us an excellent basis on which to begin talks with Parliament”, the Bulgarian minister for energy, Temenuzhka Petkova, was pleased to say.
The mandate given by the ministers allows the Council to begin talks, under the Austrian presidency, on this text with Parliament, which adopted its position on 1 March 2018 (see EUROPE 11966).
Applauding the agreement reached in Council, Energy and Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete pointed out that the Commission supported the new framework granting a “stronger role” to the director of ACER.
Addressing the press, Cañete highlighted two other major breakthroughs of the future regulation. On one hand, it will “reinforce regional cooperation” on elements in which “national regulators are not suitable to solve problems where there are two countries or two regions involved”.
On the other hand, the regulation will give a significant role to ACER for assessing adequacy at European level in the establishment of capacity payments at the level of transnational markets, he explained.
The revised regulation on ACER is the last of four texts relating to “electricity market redesign” proposed end 2016 by the Commission as part of the clean energy package (see EUROPE 11679).
On the first three of the four texts concerned – the revised draft directive on common rules for the electricity market, the revised draft regulation on the electricity market, and the draft regulation on risk preparedness in the electricity sector – the Council finalised its negotiating position at the end of 2017 (see EUROPE 11929) and negotiations with Parliament, to begin at the end of June, will be steered in Council by the Austrian presidency. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)