Today’s EFET(1) Transparency Workshop in Berlin gathers high-level politics and industry representatives

EFET Deutschland is offering a chance to prominent speakers and panelists to discuss a draft national law on the establishment of a market transparency agency (Markttransparenzstellengesetz – the draft transparency law), which is meant to implement REMIT2 into German law. The draft law has recently been given its first parliamentary reading.

We believe the draft law is not fully in line with EU wide market abuse and transparency standards.

EFET welcomes the recently introduced EU regulation REMIT which will contribute to more transparent energy markets and create confidence in wholesale energy trading. „In our role representing energy traders we have always been supporting transparency on the wholesale market. There is no place for specific national implementation given the already existing regulations at European level. The draft transparency law for the Market Transparency Authority goes well beyond the original scope of the European regulation and could jeopardize competition in the wholesale energy markets.” said Jan Haizmann, Managing Director of EFET Deutschland.3

The EFET Deutschland workshop will take place today in the Federal Press Conference Building near the German Parliament in Berlin. Among the main speakers:

• Mr. Scott O’Malia, Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will provide a unique American insight into efficiency of transparency regulation;
• Mr. Oliver Koch, representing the European Commission will issue a statement from an EU perspective;
• Bernhard Heitzer, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy will give the German Government perspective;
• Mr. Stefan Judisch, CEO of RWE Supply & Trading will present the view on the draft law from a view of a trading participant.

1 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 100 energy trading companies, active in over 27 European countries. For more information: www.efet.org.

2 REMIT : Regulation on wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency

3 At national level, EFET Deutschland together with three other key energy federations in Germany (VKU, VIK and VCI) prepared a common position paper on the draft transparency law. The common position has been brought to the attention of the German Parliament, where the draft transparency law will be debated around mid-October 2012.

Key-note speeches will be followed by a panel discussion, which will be moderated by Peter Styles, Board Member of both EFET and EFET Deutschland. Bernhard Heitzer (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology), Stefan Judisch (CEO, RWEST), Oliver Krischer (MEP, The Green Party), Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter (MEP, Social Democrat SPD), Klaus Breil (MEP, The Liberals, FDP) and Oliver Koch (DG Energy) will be invited to the podium to discuss questions such as: How much supervision can market participants tolerate? Where are the limits? Can European harmonization efforts be sustained if a country as important as Germany wants to go its own way in supervising the electricity and gas markets?

For further information, please contact:

Irina Nikolova, EFET Policy and Communication, I.Nikolova@efet.org, Tel: +49 3026557824