A group of key European lawmakers has backed new rules clamping down on insider trading in energy markets, after winning concessions on regulatory powers and financial sanctions.
A vote by the European Parliament’s industry and energy committee puts the new EU regulation on energy market integrity and transparency (REMIT) on track to come into force in September or October. The parliamentary committee voted in favour of REMIT after pushing through three main changes:
• The European Commission will have to make sure the same minimum penalties for abuse are in place in all EU states, so companies cannot relocate to obtain a less strict regime.
• The EU will work further on harsher sanctioning of financial institutions that manipulate prices in the energy market.
• The new super regulator of the EU energy sector, the Agency for Energy Regulator Cooperation (ACER), will get more power as well as a bigger budget and more staff.
“Parliament has been able to fight through quite a few important points, but it was a hard piece of work. I think we have reached a workable compromise that will ensure more transparency in the future,” committee chair Herbert Reul said.
REMIT will force traders to report all deal data to ACER. ACER or national watchdogs could step in if there is suspicion that prices have been manipulated.
If national governments approve the new draft, a full vote could take place in the European Parliament in September. That means that companies are likely to have to start reporting information to ACER by mid-2012 at the latest