The national regulatory authorities of Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Poland and Romania have signed a general unilateral declaration on the applicability of all Third Energy Package gas network codes on interconnection points between Energy Community Contracting Parties and EU Member States. The signatory regulators declared that they will respect the application of gas networks codes and guidelines on the interconnection points with the Contracting Parties, once the Secretariat has been notified by the Contracting Party of its transposition. This corresponds to a binding interpretation of the Ministerial Council issued in 2014.
Director Janez Kopač said: “The network codes declaration signed by five EU regulators, approached jointly by the European Commission and the Energy Community Secretariat, is a key step towards removing one of the obstacles to pan-European energy market integration. The EU and Energy Community markets must operate as one regulatory space for the benefit of system security, security of supply, market functioning and above all energy consumers.”
At present, EU Member States are legally obliged to apply network code rules between each other, but not on the interconnection points that border the Contracting Parties. The adoption of the network codes, which are already mandatory in the EU, is under preparation in the Energy Community. The European Commission is expected to propose the first two network codes – on interoperability and congestion management – for adoption in the Energy Community in the first half of 2017. This does not prevent Contracting Parties to proceed with an early voluntary implementation in cooperation with EU neighbours and assistance of the Secretariat.
Source: energy-community.org
