S/C/N/726  
 
13 February 2014  
(14-0904)  Page: 1/2  
Council for Trade in Services  Original: English  
 
 NOTIFICATION PURSUANT TO ARTICLE III:3 
OF THE GENERAL AGREEMENT 
ON TRADE IN SERVICES 
The following notification, dated 12 February 2014, from the delegation of the European Union, is 
being circulated to the Members of the Council for Trade in Services.  
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  The following notification is made pursuant to GATS Article III:3 and relates to measures adopted 
by the European Union in 2012. Given that th ere is no common understanding among WTO 
Members on when a measure "significantly affects trade in services" within the meaning of GATS Article III:3 and that the European Union cannot make a positive determination on this issue, it is 
therefore notifying measures that may be relevant to trade in services without prejudice to the 
interpretation of the phrase "significantly affect trade in services" in Article III:3.   
1  MEMBER NOTIFYING 
EU 
 2  NOTIFICATION UNDER ARTICLE 
Article III, paragraph 3 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services. 
 3  DATE OF ENTRY INTO FORCE 
1 November 2013 
 4  AGENCY RESPONSIBLE FOR ENFORCEMENT OF THE MEASURE 
Member States of the EU. 
 5  DESCRIPTION OF THE MEASURE 
a. Full title of the EU act:  
COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 984/2013 of 14 October 2013  
establishing a Network Code on Capacity Allocation Mechanisms in Gas Transmission Systems and 
supplementing Regulation (EC) No 715/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council. 
 
b. Brief summary of the content with a focus on potential effect on services trade: 
The Regulation contains the first European network code for gas, in particular, the network code for 
the gas capacity allocation mechanisms (CAM). 
 
The regulation establishes the manner in which the operators of the adjacent transportation systems 
cooperate in order to facilitate the capacity sales obeying by both the general trading standards and the technical standards concerning the gas capacity allocation mechanisms. 
 S/C/N/726 
 
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  The CAM network code "provides for the gas network operators indicating harmonized auctions, a 
transparent and fair to ensure the access of third parties. The auctions are performed within the same timeliness, the same rules and they will offer the same products in the entire EU, facilitating the access to the gas pipelines by the entities concerned in the use of the European network. The 
products sale will be bundled eliminating in this way the risk of being blocked by the capacity rights 
just on one side of the trans-border interconnection point. 
 
6  MEMBERS SPECIFICALLY AFFECTED, IF ANY 
None 
 
[The code will enter into operation on 1 November 2015, but owing to the understanding between 
the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and the European Network of 
Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG) the regulations will be applied before that date to the pilot projects launched in the framework of the Prisma European Capacity Platform by the 
transmission systems operators (TSO) in agreement with the Regulatory Authorities of 12 member 
states (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Hungary).] 
 
 7  TEXT AVAILABLE FROM 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32013R0984:EN:NOT  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUri Serv.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:273:0005:0017:EN:PDF  
 
OJ L 273, 15.10.2013, p. 5–17 
 
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