Energy: internal market in natural gas, cross-border exchanges, access to the transmission networks

The Commission can accept all nine amendments adopted by the European Parliament in full. They are the result of a compromise agreement reached between the European Parliament, Council and Commission during the second reading. The amendments are in line with the Commission’s objectives for the proposal and maintain the balance of interests achieved in the common position.

The substance of the amendments can be described as follows:

- Four Parliamentary amendments concern the costs to be taken into account when establishing transmission tariffs or imbalance charges. They reinforce the text of the Common Position by referring to actual costs incurred, “insofar as such costs correspond to those of an efficient and structurally comparable network operator”. Such a concept is already part of the acquis communautaire.

- One amendment defines imbalance charges to be cost reflective to the extent possible.