The Parliament of the Republic of Moldova adopted in the first reading amendments to the laws regulating the division and certification of natural gas transmission system operators.
They provide for a change in the procedure for appointing a gas transmission system operator, which will allow NAER to ensure the implementation of the III Energy Package. The need to develop this draft law was due to the legislative vacuum in terms of a direct basis for revoking a license in case of non-compliance by license holders in the natural gas sector with legal requirements regarding the separation, independence and/or certification of the transmission system operator. Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Economy, Budget and Finance Radu Marian noted that after the completion of the process of unbundling the gas transmission system, there will be many natural gas suppliers on the market, and consumers will be able to choose the gas supplier as they choose, for example, the provider of the Internet or other services. He stressed that the implementation of the adopted new legislative norms in practice will ensure increased economic competition and, consequently, price competition. Legislative initiative belongs to the government. As noted in the Ministry of Energy, one of the main obligations of Moldova to the European Union in the energy sector is to ensure the separation and independence of system operators of natural gas transportation from vertically integrated companies engaged in the production, distribution, storage, trade or supply of natural gas, as well as any companies that controls the enterprises engaged in this activity. Ensuring the independence of the transmission system operator in accordance with the requirements of the III Energy Package will lead to non-discriminatory access of system users to natural gas transmission networks and increase the competitiveness of the natural gas market in Moldova. The draft law also describes a mechanism for the transmission and management of transmission networks, in the context of which network owners will not enter into lease agreements with a new designated operator. The purpose of the relevant changes is to provide the new operator with the predictability of the regulated activities that it intends to engage in during the specified period, as well as the possibility of planning the necessary investments in the transport system. At the same time, it will not be possible to suspend the decision to revoke the license, as well as the decisions issued by NAER to ensure the continuity of natural gas transportation activities. The exclusion of the possibility of suspending these decisions of NAER is necessary, among other things, to prevent any possible blockages in the operation of the gas transmission system or the termination of gas transmission activities. As Energy Minister Victor Parlicov said earlier, the requirements regarding the separation and independence of the gas transmission system operator must be met through a certification procedure by the national regulator and subject to EU-level approval by the Energy Community Secretariat. This event is the main precondition for the creation and functioning of a competitive energy market and ensuring non-discriminatory access of all users of the system to the natural gas transmission infrastructure in Moldova. However, based on the specific situation, Moldova received earlier a deferral of the implementation of Article 9. Directive 2009/73/EU on the general rules of the internal natural gas market from March 3, 2012 to January 1, 2020. Herewith, of the 2 natural gas transmission system operators licensed in Moldova - Vestmoldtransgaz and Moldovatransgaz, only the first company was certified as a transmission system operator under the ownership division model in 2021. Meanwhile, Moldovatransgaz did not fulfill the requirements of the certification condition due to the opposition of Gazprom, the majority shareholder of Moldovagaz. Over the past 4 years, national authorities, in close cooperation with the Energy Community Secretariat, have made significant efforts to accelerate the implementation of this obligation, including by implementing an action plan to spin off Moldovatransgaz in accordance with the requirements of the law and directive, however, in the end, all these efforts were blocked by Gazprom. As a result, in November 2021, the Energy Community Secretariat initiated a preliminary procedure against our country for non-compliance with the separation, writing a letter opening a case stating that Moldova did not comply with a number of articles of Directive 2009/73 / EC, which were accepted by the Republic of Moldova. At the same time, the draft law, approved by Parliament, aims to address the procedural aspects through which the regulator could implement a mechanism to revoke the license of an operator that does not meet the certification requirements. Energy Minister Victor Parlicov emphasized that, in addition to the risks that Moldova could be subject to financial sanctions, ensuring the separation of the transport system operator within the prescribed time frame is Moldova's obligation to the EU and within the framework of the Memorandum on Economic and Financial Policy concluded with the IMF, as well as the preliminary condition for access to macro-financial assistance from the EU. The head of the Ministry of Energy noted that the Moldovan authorities cannot wait indefinitely for Gazprom to agree to the procedure for the mandatory separation of activities, known as unbundling, and therefore the current legislation needs to be changed. If Gazprom does not eventually agree to the spin-off of Moldovatransgaz as an independent operator, then NAER will be able to revoke the transmission license from Moldovatransgaz and allow another independent licensed operator in the country, Vestmoldtransgaz, to take over the gas transmission operations as an independent system operator. “The main role of an independent transmission system operator, in accordance with the requirements of the III Energy Package, is to ensure non-discriminatory access to natural gas transmission networks for system users, which will increase the competitiveness of the Moldovan natural gas market,” said Victor Parlikov.// 07.07.2023 — InfoMarket
