Madrid Forum Discusses Ways to Further Europe's Natural Gas Market
June 1, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
The 16th European Gas Regulatory Forum (the "Madrid Forum") concluded on May 29 by encouraging a rapid implementation of the third internal energy market legislative package recently proposed by the European Commission (EC).
This package aims at promoting the internal energy market through enhanced legislation relating to the design and behavior of the natural gas industry, strengthening the powers of national energy regulators, and establishing new bodies and procedures for the adoption of European market rules.
The work to be initiated during the coming weeks will advance network-related issues on market data transparency, as well as network capacity allocation and congestion management, which the Madrid Forum identified as the most urgent issues.
The EC said that in the time between the adoption of the third package and its entry into force, responsible players should dedicate resources both to establishing institutional arrangements and to trialing the respective processes.
The Madrid Forum identified capacity allocation and congestion management as being of the top priority, from the 11 areas foreseen for a possible adoption of legally binding framework guidelines and network codes.
The forum had previously identified contractual congestion on main natural gas transport routes and interconnection points as one of the main barriers to cross-border trade and to the completion of the internal gas market.
The European Regulators Group (ERGEG) reacted by proposing concrete measures intended to resolve the identified problems. Stakeholders will be invited to further describe the scope of provisions suited for this process during weeks following the Madrid Forum.
The EC also released information concerning its intention to review guidelines on natural gas network transparency. Previous Madrid Forums had identified shortcomings in the existing guidelines on transparency, in particular relating to publication of flows of gas and historic data.
Background
The European Gas Regulatory Forum was initiated by the EC in order to gather EU member states and associations. The forum convenes on a annual or semi-annual basis, depending on the relevance and urgency of the respective issues to be addressed. It is complemented by the Florence Forum for electricity and the London Forum for energy consumer interests.
Source: European Commission (EC).