London, March 2010

This Thursday, EU Member States will vote on amendments to the EU Gas Regulation. If agreed, the new text will require Transmission System Operators throughout Europe to provide better information on the status, capacity and use of Europe’s international gas pipes. As long ago as the 2008 Madrid Gas Forum, all gas market participants agreed that improved fundamental data transparency is necessary for the development of an effective, efficient and integrated European gas market. EFET1, OGP2, Eurelectric, EUROGAS, GEODE3 and CEDEC4 presented proposals to improve transparency and called for these to be made legally binding. Other associations including IFIEC5 and ERGEG6 supported this objective.

The European Commission responded positively by developing proposals to amend Chapter 3 of the Annex to the Regulation (EC) No 1775/20057. The set of amendments suggested by the European Commission were discussed by the new EU Gas Committee at its meeting on 18 December 2009 and are on the agenda for a final vote at their next meeting tomorrow, 24 March 2010.

”Market participants have been seeking these information improvements for many years and it is now in the hands of Member States to deliver the necessary EU legislation”, said Colin Lyle, Chairman of the EFET Gas Committee. “We strongly encourage the Member States to vote for the European Commission’s proposals.

Further dilution of the information requirements, or delay in implementation after all this time would be a travesty.”

EFET wants information to be available on a real- time basis, so that market participants can take effective commercial decisions and the EU gas transmission systems can be operated more efficiently. Improvements in transparency will also benefit consumers if the new rules are adopted and implemented across the EU.

“It is crucial there is a basic level of transparency across the EU gas market. This can only be delivered through robust legally binding requirements and Member States must now take this opportunity to improve the EU gas market”, added Cemil Altin, Leader of the EFET Gas Information Project Group.

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