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From · opinion letter parliamentary committee · 2023-09-04 BUDG-AL-752801 Opinion on the Commission proposal on amending Regulations (EU) No 1227/2011 and (EU) 2019/942 to improve the Union’s protection against market manipulation in the wholesale energy market (2023/0076 (COD)) and amending Regulations (EU) 2019/943 and (EU) 2019/942 as well as Directives (EU) 2018/2001 and (EU) 2019/944 to improve the Union’s electricity market design

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To · opinion parliamentary committee · 2023-06-29 ECON-AD-749178 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulations (EU) No 1227/2011 and (EU) 2019/942 to improve the Union’s protection against market manipulation in the wholesale energy market

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~~8.6.2023~~

AMENDMENTS

~~Mr Cristian Bușoi~~

The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs calls on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, as the committee responsible, to take the following into account:

~~Chair~~

Amendment 1

~~Committee on Industry, Research and Energy~~

Proposal for a regulation

~~BRUSSELS~~

Recital 2

Subject: Opinion on the Commission proposal on amending Regulations (EU) No 1227/2011 and (EU) 2019/942 to improve the Union’s protection against market manipulation in the wholesale energy market (2023/0076 (COD)) and amending Regulations (EU) 2019/943 and (EU) 2019/942 as well as Directives (EU) 2018/2001 and (EU) 2019/944 to improve the Union’s electricity market design (2023/0077(COD))

Amendment 2

~~Dear Mr Chair,~~

Proposal for a regulation

Under the procedure referred to above, the Committee on Budgets’ Coordinators decided at their meeting of 31 January 2023 to adopt an opinion under the Rule 56plus in the form of a letter covering both legislative files.

Recital 3

~~The committee adopted the opinion at its meeting on 08/06/2023 and mandated me to convey the position set out below.~~

Amendment 3

~~Background to the proposal related to the budgetary impact on the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and ITER~~

Proposal for a regulation

On 14 March 2023, the Commission proposed to reform the EU's electricity market design to accelerate a surge in renewables and the phase-out of gas, make consumer bills less dependent on volatile fossil fuel prices, better protect consumers from future price spikes and potential market manipulation, and make the EU's industry clean and more competitive.

Recital 5

~~This translated into two proposal amending several existing pieces of legislation:~~

Amendment 4

~~1. Amendment of the REMIT (Union's protection of against market manipulation in the wholesale energy market) and the corresponding amendment of the ACER Regulation.~~

Proposal for a regulation

~~2. Amendments of the EMD (Electricity market design) Regulation and Directive, the Renewable Energy Directive and the corresponding amendment of the ACER Regulation.~~

Recital 5 a (new)

The first batch will entrust ACER with new tasks, essentially authorisation and supervisory powers on electricity data platforms, a role of centralisation of suspicious transactions on the electricity market and investigation and extended enforcement powers of the REMIT Regulation. According to the Commission assessment, ACER would need 25 additional full time equivalent (FTE) and EUR 4.2 million operational expenditure over 2025-2027. 2/3 of the staff as well as the operational expenditure will be financed from extended fee. This leaves EUR 2.9 million to be financed from the EU budget over 2025-2027.

Amendment 5

The second batch will also entrust ACER with new tasks, essentially ex-ante approval of hubs for the trading of forward electricity contracts and of the methodology underpinning the reporting by MS on the need for flexibility in the electricity market. According to the Commission assessment, ACER would need 4 additional FTE for an amount of EUR 2.8 million over 2024-2027.

Proposal for a regulation

In total, the impact of the increase for ACER on the EU budget would be EUR 5.7 million over 2024-2027. The Legislative financial statement indicates that the amount will be redeployed from the ITER budget line.

Recital 8

~~Position of the Committee on Budgets~~

Amendment 6

Overall, the budgetary impact of the proposal is not substantial and the ACER Regulation is only modified to extend the scope of the fee-financed activities and add the tasks related to the amendment of the EMD. The Commission informs that the offsetting planned redeployment from ITER to ACER is not negatively impacting ITER to deliver upon its objectives under the MFF and reminds that the total amount of this planned offsetting of EUR 5.7 million accounts for 0.1% of the entire ITER budget over the MFF.

Proposal for a regulation

Still, the Committee on Budgets observes, that since the beginning of this MFF, several legislative proposals were presented by the Commission entrusting ACER with new, additional tasks which require additional financial means.

Recital 13

These combined new tasks for ACER add up to an increase in staff (from the MFF baseline situation of 77 permanent, 36 contract agents, 4 Seconded national experts to 142 permanent, 47 contract agents, 10 Seconded national experts) and in projected budgetary needs (budget is projected to increase up to 22,4 Million Euro in 2027 instead of 16,3 Million Euro).

Justification

The need to resort to redeployments in order to ensure the necessary additional operational and administrative resources constitutes a significant impact on the EU budget for the remainder of the financial programming period and beyond.

While data collection is imperative, we also need to facilitate reporting standards horizontally in EU legislation to avoid duplicative reporting from market participants

The European Parliament, in numerous reports and resolutions, has reiterated its general position that new tasks should be covered by fresh resources and that the practice of ‘compensation’ of reinforcements through back loading or reductions in programme envelopes should be prevented. Nevertheless, given the accumulation of new initiatives, additional needs and unexpected developments, it must be soberly stated that the default sources for such fresh appropriations in the EU budget - unallocated margins under the MFF ceilings and non-thematic special instruments are like to be virtually or even entirely depleted as of B2024.

Amendment 7

The Committee on Budgets stands ready to follow the proposal closely during the next procedural steps in particular on discussions on the human and financial resources of ACER and any potential budgetary consequences.

Proposal for a regulation

~~Yours sincerely,~~

Recital 22

~~Johan Van Overtveldt~~

Amendment 8

Proposal for a regulation

Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 1 – point a