The members of the EFET Board have welcomed the establishment of a new

group, specifically designed to address the development of gas markets in the

Central and Eastern European countries. This new group has been called EFET

Task Force Central and Eastern Europe Gas (TF CEEG).

The new task force is led by Radim Fiala, who is Head of Gas Trading at the Czech

company Lumius, and works closely with the EFET Gas Committee. The network of EFET

members who are trading in the region already includes about twenty companies who are

active in the gas market.

The first TF CEEG meeting took place in Vienna on 21st April and – despite the air travel

disruptions that occurred that week - a dozen members participated.

“The establishment of this new EFET group has been highly welcomed by the market

participants active in this region” commented the TF CEEG Chairman Radim Fiala. “This

part of Europe has an interesting market potential, although with different levels of

market openness. Companies have always worked independently so far; now the time

has come to join forces and collaborate to reduce or remove the significant barriers to

energy trading.”

The main aim, as determined by the members of TF CEEG, is to contribute to the

development of liquid and transparent wholesale gas markets, by removing or reducing

the current obstacles to energy trading in the CEE region and, consequently, facilitating

energy trading throughout the whole of Europe.

With this objective in mind, the TF CEEG will be participating in the dialogue with the key

energy market operators and regulators in the region of Central and Eastern Europe.

The task force members agreed that their priority work would concentrate on capacity

and market development issues – at first in Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The

TF CEEG also plans to expand its activities to other key countries for the EU gas market,

like Poland and Romania, as gas trading continues to spread across the region.

The first focus of attention for the new TF CEEG was the new regulation concerning grid

access and booking of gas capacity in Hungary, regarding which a letter was sent to

HEO2. The TF members have also commented on the recently released ERGEG3 GRI Work

Programme 2010-2011 for the region of South and South-East Europe.

The next meeting is scheduled to take place in Warsaw during the second week of June

in combination with the conference Energy Trading Central and South East Europe 2010.

For further information, please contact:

Ilaria Conti: Ilaria.Conti@efet.org Tel. +32 485 613 77

EFET -The European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET) promotes and facilitates European energy trading in

open, transparent and liquid wholesale markets, unhindered by national borders or other undue obstacles. EFET

currently represents more than 90 energy trading companies, active in over 27 European countries. For more

information: www.efet.org

2 HEO: Hungarian Energy Office

3 ERGEG: European Group of Regulators for Electricity and Gas