COUNCIL DIRECTIVE of 29 June 1990 concerning a Community procedure to improve the transparency of gas and electricity prices charged to industrial end-users (90/377/EEC)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 213 thereof,
Having regard to the Commission's proposal (1),
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (2),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3),
Whereas energy price transparency, to the extent that it reinforces the conditions ensuring that competition is not distorted in the common market, is essential to the achievement and smooth functioning of the internal energy market;
Whereas transparency can help to obviate discrimination against users by increasing their freedom to choose between different energy sources and different suppliers;
Whereas, at present, the degree of transparency varies from one energy source and one Community country or region to another, thus calling into question the achievement of an internal energy market;
Whereas, however, the price paid by industry in the Community for the energy which it uses is one of the factors which influence its competitiveness and should therefore remain confidential;
Whereas the system of standard consumers used by the Statistical Office of the European Communities (SOEC) in its price publications and the system of market prices due to be introduced for major industrial electricity users will ensure that transparency is not an obstacle to confidentiality;
Whereas it is necessary to extend the consumer categories used by the SOEC up to the limits at which the consumers remain representative;
Whereas in this way end-users price transparency would be achieved without endangering the necessary confidentiality of contracts; whereas in order to respect confidentiality there must be at least three consumers in a given consumption category for a price to be published;
Whereas this information which concerns gas and electricity consumed by industry for energy end-users, will also enable comparisons to be drawn with other energy sources (oil, coal, fossil and renewable energy sources) and other consumers;
Whereas undertakings which supply gas and electricity as well as industrial gas and electricity consumers remain, independently of the application of this Directive, subject to the Treaty's competition rules and whereas consequently the Commission can require communication of prices and conditions of sale;
Whereas knowledge of the price systems in force forms part of price transparency;
Whereas knowledge of the breakdown of consumers by category and their respective market shares also forms part of price transparency;
Whereas the communication to the SOEC of prices and conditions of sale to consumers and price systems in operation as well as the breakdown of consumers by consumption category should inform the Commission sufficiently for it to decide, as necessary, on apropriate action or proposals in the light of the situation of the internal energy market;
Whereas the data supplied to the SOEC will be more reliable if the undertakings themselves compile these data;
Whereas familiarity with the taxation and parafiscal charges existing in each Member State is important to ensure price transparency;
Whereas it must be possible to check the reliability of the data supplied to the SOEC;
Whereas the achievement of transparency presupposes the publication and circulation of prices and price systems as widely as possible among consumers;
Whereas to implement energy price transparency the system should be based on the proven expertise and methods developed and applied by the SOEC regarding the processing, checking and publication of data;
Whereas, with the prospect of the achievement of the internal market in energy, the system of price transparency should be rendered operational as soon as possible;
Whereas the uniform implementation of this Directive can only take place in all the Member States when the natural gas market, in particular with regard to infrastructure, has reached a sufficient level of development,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Article 1
Member States shall take the steps necessary to ensure that undertakings which supply gas or electricity to industrial end-users, as defined in Annexes I and II, communicate to the SOEC in the form provided for in Article 3:
1. the prices and terms of sale of gas and electricity to industrial end-users;
2. the price systems in use;
3. the breakdown of consumers and the corresponding volumes by category of consumption to ensure the representativeness of these categories at national level.
Article 2
1. The undertakings referred to in Article 1 shall assemble the data provided for in Article 1 (1) and (2), on 1 January and 1 July of each year. These data, drawn up in conformity with the provisions referred to in Article 3, shall be sent to the SOEC and the competent authorities of the Member States within two months.
2. On the basis of the data referred to in paragraph 1, the SOEC shall publish each May and each November, in an appropriate form, the prices of gas and electricity for industrial users in the Member States and the pricing systems used to that end.
3. The information provided for in Article 1 (3) shall be sent every two years to the SOEC and to the Member States' competent authorities. The first communication shall concern the situation as at 1 January 1991. This information shall not be published.
Article 3
The implementing provisions concerning the form, content and all other features of the information provided for in Article 1 are set out in Annexes I and II.
Article 4
The SOEC shall not disclose data supplied to it pursuant to Article 1 which might, by their nature, be subject to commercial confidentiality. Such confidential statistical data transmitted to the SOEC shall be accessible only to officials of the SOEC and may be used only for statistical purposes.
This provision shall not, however, prevent the publication of such data in an aggregated form which does not enable individual commercial transactions to be identified.
Article 5
Where the SOEC notes statistically significant anomalies or inconsistencies in data transmitted under this Directive, it may ask the national bodies to allow it to inspect the appropriate disaggregated data as well as the methods of calculation or evaluation upon which the aggregated data are based, in order to assess, or even amend, any information deemed irregular.
Article 6
Where appropriate, the Commission shall make the necessary changes to the Annexes to this Directive in the light of specific problems identified. Such changes may, however, cover only the technical features of the Annexes and may not be of a nature such as to alter the general structure of the system.
Article 7
In the case of any changes to the Annexes, as referred to in Article 6, the Commission shall be assisted by a committee of an advisory nature composed of the representatives of the Member States and chaired by the representative of the Commission.
The representative of the Commission shall submit to the committee a draft of the measures to be taken. The committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft within a time limit which the chairman may lay down according to the urgency of the matter, if necessary by taking a vote.
The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes; in addition each Member State shall have the right to ask to have its position recorded in the minutes.
The Commission shall take the utmost account of the opinion delivered by the committee. It shall inform the committee of the manner in which its opinion has been taken into account.
Article 8
Once a year the Commission shall present a summary report on the operation of this Directive to the European
Parliament, the Council and the Economic and Social Committee.
Article 9
Member States shall adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions needed to comply with this Directive no later than 1 July 1991. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.
In the case of natural gas, the Directive will not be implemented in a Member State until five years after the introduction of that form of energy on the market in question. The date of introduction of that energy source on a national market is to be explicitly reported to the Commission by the Member State concerned without delay.
Article 10
This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
Done at Luxembourg, 29 June 1990.