EC Urges Romania To Ensure Energy Market Competitiveness

The action taken by the Commission addresses possible violations of different provisions of the EU legislation on the internal electricity and gas market. The Commission has focused in particular on provisions which shall guarantee fair competition in the interest of consumers, EC said Thursday.

According to EU rules, equal access to electricity and gas networks is key for those who want to enter the energy market.

"However, without reliable and transparent information on the capacity of the network, newcomers cannot effectively participate in the energy market," the Commission said.

EU’s executive arm considers that the transmission system operator for electricity and for gas do not publish all information as required by the EC Regulations, notably on available capacity.

Also, EC said it is important that network capacity is optimised, but some aspects in the Romanian system do not seem to meet the respective requirements of EU law, namely the congestion management in the electricity system has to be improved, while the gas maximum capacity must be made available to interested operators.

As regards the consumer protection, the current Romanian legislation does not provide for an alternative dispute settlement mechanism, the Commission concluded.

On the other hand, EC rules do not allow, in principle, end-user regulated prices for electricity and gas for non-household customers, which are currently approved by Romania’s regulatory authority ANRE.

"However, regulated prices may be justified as Public Service Obligations. So far, though, the Commission has not received the necessary justification for regulated prices for non-household customers in Romania," the Commission added.

Also, EC noted it has not yet received a notification from Romania as regards the penalties for breaching the rules in the field of energy.