summary of the case
| status: | closed in preliminary procedure (Art.91) / complied in preliminary procedure |
|---|---|
| registered: | ex officio 2011 |
The principle of non-discrimination is a fundamental and overriding principle of Energy Community law as reflected throughout the acquis communautaire. This principle has been applied and further defined by the Court of Justice of the European Union on several occasions, most notably, in the context of the present cases, in the VEMW case of 2005. In that case, the Court came to the conclusion that granting preferential access to interconnection capacity amounts to discrimination and violates the acquis on electricity.
In case ECS-09/11, the Secretariat requested Albania to change the market rules and its transmission system operator’s (TSO's) allocation rules, under which 50% of the capacity available is reserved for imports by the distribution system operator, another 25% for imports by the state-owned wholesale public supplier, and the remaining 25% for so-called “qualified suppliers”.
Following the adoption of new Allocation Rules for the year 2012, that allow allocating capacity on electricity interconnectors in a non-discriminatory manner, the Secretariat closed Case ECS-09/11 on 1 September 2012.