Background
At the 11th PHLG meeting, the Secretariat presented the Report on the Implementation of the Acquis under Title II of the Treaty Establishing the Energy Community - Environment, Competition and Renewables. It has been prepared on the ground of Secretariat’s analysis, on the information provided by the Contracting Parties (by the governmental and the regulatory institutions), as well as on publicly available data. The report reflects the situation as of 1st November 2008.
Legal Framework
The implementation of the acquis for renewables aims to overcome key challenges for the Contracting Parties as growing dependence on energy imports and fragile security of energy supplies to provide a sustainable development and mitigation of the energy and transport sectors’ impact on climate change.
According to Article 20 of the Treaty, all Contracting Parties have to develop national plans for adoption of:
• Directive 2001/77/EC on the promotion of electricity, produced from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market, and
• Directive 2003/30/EC on the promotion of the use of biofuels or other renewable fuels for transport.
The Plans had to be submitted for approval to the Ministerial Council within one year after the Energy Community Treaty enters into force.
Approach
Between the three pillars of Energy Community competition policy, a crucial distinction between cartel and abuse prohibition (restricting conduct of undertakings in the first place) on the one hand and State aid prohibition (restricting conduct of the State) on the other hand imposes itself and will be followed throughout this report.
The report outlines, on the ground of the key findings for each of the Contracting Parties:
• the key expectations for further progress in the implementation process by the end of 2008 and during 2009
• the key challenges to overcome.
