1. Major EU Energy Law & Policy Developments in 2013
Raluca Dirjan

2. RES & Energy Efficiency
 Moving forward on Climate and Energy 2030
 RES Progress Report
 Energy Efficiency Directive
Internal Energy Market
 REMIT
 Making the internal energy market work
 Unbundling guidelines for financial investors
Oil & Gas
 Shale Gas
 Offshore oil and gas platforms standards

3. Moving forward on Climate and Energy 2030
 Green Paper and Public Consultation
 no further targets proposed
 invitation to stakeholders to express their views on the
way forward
 lack of competitiveness of the EU economies – burden
of high energy prices
 new measures for reaching the 2020 targets in the
context of scaling back of the support schemes
 limit the use of the support schemes only to those
technologies and if that is still need it
 avoid overcompensation
 proposal for the 2030 framework on the table by
the end of 2013
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/green_paper_2030_en.htm

4. RES Progress Report
 reform of the support schemes - cost-effective and
market-orientated manner
 national reforms - negative impact on the investment
climate
 more convergence and ‘Europeanisation’ of RES support
schemes is needed
 regional and possibly sectoral joint support schemes
between Member States based on the co-
operation mechanisms
 COM to provide Guidelines by the end of the
year
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/green_paper_2030_en.htm

5. Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27)
 indicative national energy efficiency targets for 2020
 energy utilities as of 1 January 2014: cumulative end-use energy
savings target, which target is set at 1,5 % of the annual energy sales
to final customers
 consumers: required to manage their energy consumption more
efficiently as a result of better information provided on their meters and
bills
 high quality energy audits will be made available to all final
customers
 the industry: must carry out cost-benefit analyses to assess the
potential of using efficient heating and cooling systems, in particular
those using high-efficiency cogeneration
 central governments: can only acquire energy-efficient buildings,
services and products
 as from 1 January 2014, they must renovate 3% of their buildings on
a yearly basis in order to drastically reduce their energy consumption
 implementation deadline 5 June 2014
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/efficiency/eed/eed_en.htm

6. REMIT
Wholesale energy markets provide key price signals which affect the
choices of producers and consumers, and investment decision in
production facilities and transport infrastructure
 energy trading will be screened at EU level to uncover abuses
 defining market abuse as market manipulation, attempted
market manipulation and insider trading, in wholesale energy
markets
 explicit prohibition of market manipulation, attempted market
manipulation and insider trading in wholesale energy markets
 new framework for the monitoring of wholesale energy
markets to detect and deter market manipulation and insider
trading
 enforcement of the above prohibitions and the sanctioning of
breaches of market abuse rules at national level
http://www.acer.europa.eu/remit/Pages/default.aspx

7. Making the internal energy market work
Report and Work Plan
 COM: pursue the enforcement procedures
 Competition authorities: keeping the playing field
 ACER: continue with the regional initiatives
 MSs: develop infrastructure
 Consumers: end to regulated tariffs + assistance to vulnerable consumers
 Minimise market intervention so that the liberalised markets can work
based on economic principles
 ENTSO-E and G: finalise the Codes so that the ETM and GTM can be fully
implemented
 integrate RES capacities
 Security of supply: reward capacity availability
 More energy infrastructure for the cross border integration
 Smart grids and meters to ensure demand side management
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/gas_electricity/internal_market_en.htm

8. Unbundling Guidelines for financial investors
 aim: to avoid conflict of interest for entities holding participations in
transmission, generation and supply units
 not legally binding but v useful for considering the acceptable forms of financial
investments
 2 steps test: 1. control or exercise rights and if yes, then 2. if in the circumstances
of the individual case, it can be clearly demonstrated that there is no incentive for
a shareholder in a TSO to influence the TSO’s decision-making in order to favor his
generation, production and/or supply interest to the detriment of other network
users
 geographic location (National Grid UK)
 crossing over gas – electricity assets less likely to generate conflict (Red
Electrica de Espana and Enagas)
 Size and market share of the conflicting activities (50 Hertz and Dalkia Polska)
 Generators rewarded with FiT less likely to create conflict if transmission assets
are also owned
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/gas_electricity/interpretative_notes/doc/implementation_
notes/swd_2013_0177_en.pdf

9. Shale Gas

10. Shale Gas
 Hydrocarbon Licensing Directive 1994 (HLD 1994) – no barriers to cover
shale gas as well
 prior to 2011 no one spoke about shale gas in Europe
 European Council meeting February 2011 and the European Parliament’s
November 2012 call for the introduction of an EU-wide risk management
framework for unconventional fossil fuels exploration and extraction
 Commission has released several studies on shale gas
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/energy/uff_studies_en.htm
 on-line public consultation came to an end in March 2013 and the results
are now available as a prep for an impact assessment on the
‘Environmental, Climate and Energy Assessment Framework to Enable Safe
and Secure Unconventional Hydrocarbon Extraction’
 public opinion leaning towards a NO
majority view: regulatory framework needs to be developed to cover all
risks

11. Directive on Offshore oil and gas platforms
standards
 in force as of 18 July 2013
 addressing Deepwater Horizon (Gulf of Mexico) and Alpha Piper
(UKCS) accidents
 aim: consistent minimum standard of regulation across EU
 mostly based on the UKCS standards
 not applicable to landlocked MSs
 financial liability for environmental damages moved from the
operator to the licence holder
 NRAs to assess the financial capability of the licence holders to
withstand adequate provisions for potential liabilities
 operators to submit a major hazard report prior to
commencement of the offshore operations
 oil spill response effectiveness
 independent authorities for safety and environment oversight,
separated from the licensing authority (ie: NRAs)
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/oil/offshore/standards_en.htm

12. Thank you!
Raluca Dirjan
Attorney at Law
r.dirjan@schoenherr.eu
+32 2 743 40 41