Sustainable Energy Law Notebook

The Florence School of Regulation of the European University Institute is organizing from 23 to 28 May 2013 its new edition (3rd one) of the Summer School on Energy Policy and EU Law . Among the topics covered this year are: infrastructure and sustainability, security of supply, wholesale energy markets and competition, retail energy markets and competition . I will myself cover the interaction between RES promotion and the free movement of goods . See you in Florence? Deadline for registration is 15 April 2013 . See full programme here . Website of the programme.

The European Commission informed on 11 December 2012 that it is suspecting the operator of the Romanian power exchange, OPCOM S.A., of anti-competitive behaviour . The Commission is also investigating the Transmission System Operator (TSO) CNTEE Transelectrica S.A., OPCOM's parent company .  The Commission fears that OPCOM is abusing its dominant position , in breach of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) , resulting in discrimination against companies on the grounds of nationality or place establishment. The main requirement which concerns the Commission is an obligation, for all participants to the spot markets on the power exchange, to hold a VAT registration number in Romania . In practice, this obliges the interested market participants to establish themselves in Romania in order to trade on the power exchange. Because this requirement represents an additional burden for non-Romanian traders, it may affect trade between Member States...

The "Conclusions on Renewable Energy" adopted by the energy formation of the Council on 3 December 2012 leaves a mixed impression. It is a mix of endorsement  for some of the European Commission's proposals, notably on internal market, need for improvement of national support schemes, infrastructure and consumer protection, coherence with carbon market, and at the same time a puzzle of careful formula as to what will be , should be , can be and may be done after detailed assessment . The most notable is probably the reference to a post-2020 framework for EU renewable energy policy , the assessment of which will first be the task of the European Commission. The European Commission have already expressed its views on the future role that renewable energy sources (RES) in its communication "Renewable Energy: a major player in the European energy market" adopted on 6 June 2012. As an answer to this communication, the EU energy ministers set a series...