Changes from plenary report to adopted text

RemovedThe designation of an independent system operator shall be subject to approval by the Commission.

Removed2. The Member State may approve and designate an independent system operator only where:

Removed(a) the candidate operator has demonstrated that it complies with the requirements of Article 54 (1), points (b), (c) and (d);

Removed(b) the candidate operator has demonstrated that it has at its disposal the required financial, technical, physical and human resources to carry out its tasks under Article 35;

Removed(c) the candidate operator has undertaken to comply with a ten-year network development plan monitored by the regulatory authority;

Removed(d) the transmission system owner has demonstrated its ability to comply with its obligations under paragraph 5., to which end, it shall provide all the draft contractual arrangements with the candidate undertaking and any other relevant entity;

Removed(e) the candidate operator has demonstrated its ability to comply with its obligations under [recast Gas regulation as proposed in COM(2021) xxx] including the cooperation of transmission system operators at European and regional level.

Removed3. Undertakings which have been certified by the regulatory authority as having complied with the requirements of Article 66 and of paragraph 2 of this Article shall be approved and designated as independent system operators by Member States. The certification procedure in either Article 65 of this Directive and Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 715/2009 or in Article 66 of this Directive shall be applicable.

Removed4. Each independent system operator shall be responsible for granting and managing third-party access, including the collection of access charges and congestion charges, for operating, maintaining and developing the transmission system, as well as for ensuring the long-term ability of the system to meet reasonable demand through investment planning. When developing the transmission system the independent system operator shall be responsible for planning (including the authorisation procedure), construction and commissioning of the new infrastructure. For this purpose, the independent system operator shall act as a transmission system operator in accordance with this Chapter. The transmission system owner shall not be responsible for granting and managing third-party access, nor for investment planning.

Removed5. Where an independent system operator has been designated, the transmission system owner shall:

Removed(a) provide all the relevant cooperation and support to the independent system operator for the fulfilment of its tasks, including in particular all relevant information;

Removed(b) finance the investments decided by the independent system operator and approved by the regulatory authority, or give its agreement to financing by any interested party including the independent system operator; the. The relevant financing arrangements shall be subject to approval by the regulatory authority; prior. Prior to such approval, the regulatory authority shall consult the transmission system owner together with other interested parties;

Removed(c) provide for the coverage of liability relating to the network assets, excluding the liability relating to the tasks of the independent system operator;

Removed(d) provide guarantees to facilitate financing any network expansions with the exception of those investments where, pursuant to point (b), it has given its agreement to financing by any interested party including the independent system operator.

Removed6. In close cooperation with the regulatory authority, the relevant national competition authority shall be granted all relevant powers to effectively monitor compliance of the transmission system owner with its obligations under paragraph 5.

RemovedArticle 56 Unbundling of transmission system owners, storage system and hydrogen storage operators

RemovedTransmission system and hydrogen network owners, where an independent system operator or an independent hydrogen network operator has been appointed, and storage system operators or hydrogen storage facility operators which are part of vertically integrated undertakings shall be independent at least in terms of their legal form, organisation and decision making from other activities not relating to transmission, distribution, transport and storage of gas.

RemovedThis Article shall apply only to natural gas storage facilities that are technically and/or economically necessary for providing efficient access to the system for the supply of customers pursuant to Article 29.

RemovedIn order to ensure the independence of the transmission system or hydrogen network owner and storage system or hydrogen storage operator referred to in the first paragraph, the following minimum criteria shall apply:

Removed(a) persons responsible for the management of the transmission system or hydrogen network owner and storage system or hydrogen storage operator shall not participate in company structures of the integrated natural gas undertaking responsible, directly or indirectly, for the day-to-day operation of the production and supply of gas;

Removed(b) appropriate measures shall be taken to ensure that the professional interests of persons responsible for the management of the transmission system or hydrogen network owner and storage system or hydrogen storage operator are taken into account in a manner that ensures that they are capable of acting independently;

Removed(c) the storage system or hydrogen storage operator shall have effective decision-making rights, independent from the integrated natural gas undertaking, with respect to assets necessary to operate, maintain or develop the storage facilities; this shall not preclude the existence of appropriate coordination mechanisms to ensure that the economic and management supervision rights of the parent company in respect of return on assets regulated indirectly in accordance with Article 72(7) in a subsidiary are protected; it shall enable in particular the parent company to approve the annual financial plan, or any equivalent instrument, of the storage system or hydrogen storage operator and to set global limits on the levels of indebtedness of its subsidiary; it shall not permit the parent company to give instructions regarding day-to-day operations, nor with respect to individual decisions concerning the construction or upgrading of storage facilities, that do not exceed the terms of the approved financial plan, or any equivalent instrument;

Removed(d) the transmission system or hydrogen network owner and the storage system or hydrogen storage operator shall establish a compliance programme, which shall set out measures taken to ensure that discriminatory conduct is excluded, and ensure that observance of it is adequately monitored; it shall also set out the specific obligations of employees to meet those objectives; an annual report, setting out the measures taken, shall be submitted by the person or body responsible for monitoring the compliance programme to the regulatory authority and shall be published.

RemovedThe Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 83 supplementing this Directive in order to set guidelines to ensure full and effective compliance of the transmission system or hydrogen network owner and of the storage system or hydrogen storage operator with paragraph 2 of this Article.

Removedindependent transmission operators

Removed1. Transmission system operators shall be equipped with all human, technical, physical and financial resources necessary for fulfilling their obligations under this Directive and carrying out the activity of gas transmission, in particular:

Removed(a) assets that are necessary for the activity of gas transmission, including the transmission system, shall be owned by the transmission system operator;

Removed(b) personnel necessary for the activity of gas transmission, including the performance of all corporate tasks, shall be employed by the transmission system operator;

Removed(c) leasing of personnel and rendering of services, to and from any other parts of the vertically integrated undertaking shall be prohibited. A transmission system operator may, however, render services to the vertically integrated undertaking as long as:

Removed(i) the provision of those services does not discriminate between system users, is available to all system users on the same terms and conditions and does not restrict, distort or prevent competition in production or supply;

Removed(ii) the terms and conditions of the provision of those services are approved by the regulatory authority;

Removed(d) without prejudice to the decisions of the Supervisory Body under Article 60, appropriate financial resources for future investment projects or for the replacement of existing assets shall be made available to the transmission system operator in due time by the vertically integrated undertaking following an appropriate request from the transmission system operator.

Removed2. The activity of gas transmission shall include at least the following tasks in addition to those listed in Article 35:

Removed(a) the representation of the transmission system operator and contacts to third parties and the regulatory authorities;

Removed(b) the representation of the transmission system operator within the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSO for Gas);

Removed(c) granting and managing third-party access on a non-discriminatory basis between system users or classes of system users;

Removed(d) the collection of all the transmission system related charges including access charges, balancing charges for ancillary services such as gas treatment, purchasing of services (balancing costs, energy for losses);

Removed(e) the operation, maintenance and development of a secure, efficient and economic transmission system;

Removed(f) investment planning ensuring the long-term ability of the system to meet reasonable demand and guaranteeing security of supply;

Removed(g) the setting up of appropriate joint ventures, including with one or more transmission system operators, gas exchanges, and the other relevant actors pursuing the objective to develop the creation of regional markets or to facilitate the liberalisation process;

Removed(h) all corporate services, including legal services, accountancy and IT services.

Removed3. Transmission system operators shall be organised in a legal form as referred to in Annex II to Directive (EU) 2017/1132 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Removed4. The transmission system operator shall not, in its corporate identity, communication, branding and premises, create confusion in respect of the separate identity of the vertically integrated undertaking or any part thereof.

Removed5. The transmission system operator shall not share IT systems or equipment, physical premises and security access systems with any part of the vertically integrated undertaking, nor use the same consultants or external contractors for IT systems or equipment, and security access systems.

Removed6. The accounts of transmission system operators shall be audited by an auditor other than the one auditing the vertically integrated undertaking or any part thereof.

Removed1. Without prejudice to the decisions of the Supervisory Body under Article 60, the transmission system operator shall have:

Removed(a) effective decision-making rights, independent from the vertically integrated undertaking, with respect to assets necessary to operate, maintain or develop the transmission system;

Removed(b) the power to raise money on the capital market in particular through borrowing and capital increase.

Removed2. The transmission system operator shall at all times act so as to ensure it has the resources it needs in order to carry out the activity of transmission properly and efficiently and develop and maintain an efficient, secure and economic transmission system.

Removed3. Subsidiaries of the vertically integrated undertaking performing functions of production or supply shall not have any direct or indirect shareholding in the transmission system operator. The transmission system operator shall neither have any direct or indirect shareholding in any subsidiary of the vertically integrated undertaking performing functions of production or supply, nor receive dividends or any other financial benefit from that subsidiary.

Removed4. The overall management structure and the corporate statutes of the transmission system operator shall ensure effective independence of the transmission system operator in compliance with this Chapter. The vertically integrated undertaking shall not determine, directly or indirectly, the competitive behaviour of the transmission system operator in relation to the day to day activities of the transmission system operator and management of the network, or in relation to activities necessary for the preparation of the ten-year network development plan developed pursuant to Article 51.

Removed5. In fulfilling their tasks listed in Article 35 and Article 57(2) of this Directive, and in complying with Article 15(1), Article 5(1)(a), Article 9(2), (3) and (5), Article 30(6) and Article 12(1) of [recast Gas Regulation as proposed in COM(2021) xxx], transmission system operators shall not discriminate against different persons or entities and shall not restrict, distort or prevent competition in production or supply.

Removed6. Any commercial and financial relations between the vertically integrated undertaking and the transmission system operator, including loans from the transmission system operator to the vertically integrated undertaking, shall comply with market conditions. The transmission system operator shall keep detailed records of such commercial and financial relations and make them available to the regulatory authority upon request.

Removed7. The transmission system operator shall submit for approval by the regulatory authority all commercial and financial agreements with the vertically integrated undertaking.

Removed8. The transmission system operator shall inform the regulatory authority of the financial resources, referred to in Article 57(1), point (d), available for future investment projects or for the replacement of existing assets.

Removed9. The vertically integrated undertaking shall refrain from any action impeding or prejudicing the transmission system operator from complying with its obligations in this Chapter and shall not require the transmission system operator to seek permission from the vertically integrated undertaking in fulfilling those obligations.

Removed10. An undertaking which has been certified by the regulatory authority as being in compliance with the requirements of this Chapter shall be approved and designated as a transmission system operator by the Member State concerned. The certification procedure in either Article 65 of this Directive and Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 715/2009 or in Article 66 of this Directive shall apply.

Removed11. The transmission system operator shall make public detailed information regarding the quality of the gas transported in its networks, based on Articles 16 and 17 of Regulation (EU) 2015/703.

RemovedArticle 59 Independence of the staff and the management of the transmission system operator

Removed1. Decisions regarding the appointment and renewal, working conditions including remuneration, and termination of the term of office, of the persons responsible for the management or members of the administrative bodies of the transmission system operator shall be taken by the Supervisory Body of the transmission system operator appointed in accordance with Article 60.