On Thursday 7 September, members of Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) will vote on the draft report by Maria da Graça Carvalho (EPP, Portuguese) on the revision of the REMIT regulation, which aims to improve the EU’s protection against manipulation of the wholesale energy market, as part of the reform of the electricity market.
This revision aims, among other things, to give more power to the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) with regard to the authorisation and supervision of electricity data, the role of centralising suspicious transactions on the electricity market, as well as the extensive powers of investigation and enforcement set out in REMIT, in collaboration with the national regulatory authorities.
Alternative compromise
An alternative compromise amendment tabled by MEPs Zdzisław Krasnodębski (ECR, Polish) and François-Xavier Bellamy (EPP, French) modifies Article 13 detailing the implementation of prohibitions against market abuse.
In this version, more power would be given to national regulatory authorities (NRAs), as the amendment adds that the NRA of a Member State may oppose the powers exercised by ACER in that jurisdiction, if that NRA has formally initiated or is conducting an investigation into the same facts as ACER or has conducted an investigation into the same facts and determined the existence or absence of an infringement.
The text’s rapporteur, Maria da Graça Carvalho, believes this alternative compromise amendment is unlikely to be adopted.
“Perhaps the Council’s position will go in the direction (of this alternative compromise amendment), but we in the Parliament support a European dimension and an important role for the European regulator”, she explained to EUROPE.
With regard to the electricity market reform package (REMIT and EMD or ‘electricity market design’), the compromise was adopted by the ITRE Committee on 19 July so that it could enter directly into interinstitutional negotiations with the EU Council.
However, a political group can challenge this agreement and request a plenary vote before entering into negotiations with the Council (see EUROPE 13226/20).
From the Council perspective, the European energy ministers reached a general approach on the REMIT element on 19 June (see EUROPE 13204/1), but have yet to reach an agreement on the EMD element (see EUROPE 13221/13).
To see the rapporteur’s compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/8fw
To see the alternative compromise amendment: https://aeur.eu/f/8fx (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)