Luxembourg, 10/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - The 25 Energy Ministers of the EU agreed that the proposed regulation on conditions for the access of third parties to the Member States' gas transport networks to enter into force on 1 July 2006, at Thursday's Council in Luxembourg. The European Parliament is to take position on the dossier at second reading.
The proposal of December 2003 aims to add to the directive on the internal gas market (adopted in 2003), by establishing detailed rules for access by third parties to the Member States' gas transport networks. It provides for the adoption of precise and binding guidelines, notably on access services for third parties to gas transport networks, the management and distribution of capability, obligations of transparency and tariff structure. It also provides for these guidelines gradually to be adapted by comitology, and forces national regulation authorities to make sure that these guidelines are being observed. The objective is to make voluntary commitments taken by Member States at the Madrid Forum binding, in order to ensure that these will be implemented, pointed out the Commissioner for Energy, Loyola de Palacio.
The agreement reached by the Council is a compromise between the Commission's text, providing for the regulation to enter into force on 1 July 2005, and the wishes of several delegations (including Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic, France and Poland) to postpone this until 1 July 2007. The Council finally decided that the regulation would enter into force on 1 July 2006. However, it built in an extra date for any changes it the guidelines, to ensure the minimum degree of harmonisation required to achieve the regulation's objectives (article 9 of the proposal). In order to "reassure" various delegations, such as Germany, the text stipulates that the Commission cannot revise these guidelines until after 1 January 2007… scarcely six months later.