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In its meeting in Düsseldorf on 12 March 2009 the exchange council chaired by Dr. Günther Rabensteiner elected Prof. Dr. Ulrich Ehricke of the University of Cologne and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kühling of the University of Regensburg as equal chairmen of the newly established sanctions committee.
The task of the sanctions committee will be to take action against violations of statutory and exchange rules, especially the provisions of the code of conduct, committed by trading participants. To that end, the sanctions committee has the following possible sanctions at its disposa. It can issue a letter of censure, it can impose fines of up to EUR 250.000 or a suspension from the exchange for up to 30 trading days on trading participants in case the trading participant concerned or one of its vicarious agents deliberately or negligently violates legal provisions governing exchange transactions and intended to safeguard the proper execution of trading on the exchange or of the settlement of exchange transactions.
The establishment of the sanctions committee as an independent body of the exchang in addition to the exchange council, the management board of the exchange and Market Surveillance within the meaning of the German Exchange Act is attributable to an ordinance by the Exchange Supervisory Authority from the Saxon State Ministry of Economic Affairs and Labour of 16th January 2009.
In the framework of the discussion of scientific documentations, which has become a regular feature of the meetings, the exchange council welcomed Dr Uwe Leprich, Professor at the University of Applied Sciences of the Saarland and author of the study “Stromwatch II“, the results of which he presented in the meeting, as a guest. In a comprehensive discussion the exchange council explained the supervision mechanisms of the management board of the exchange and of Market Surveillance as well as the competences and fields of responsibility of the individual bodies of the exchange. Moreover, the different initiatives by EEX for increased transparency in the field of information which is relevant with regard to market prices, e.g. power plant information, were also covered in this discussion.
Furthermore, the Exchange Council discussed the proposals by the Management Board of the Exchange regarding the reduction of the minimum contract volume on the Spot Market for natural gas to 1 MW. As a result, a resolution to introduce an Intraday Pricing Window in the trading form of an intraday auction was adopted. The required adjustments in the rules and regulations will be effected until the next meeting of the Exchange Council and adopted then. The implementation in daily trading is to be effected at the latest by the beginning of the new gas business year on 1st October 2009. By means of this step EEX pursues the aim of offering its trading participants a platform on which smaller quantities of gas can also be traded in order to strengthen overall liquidity.
In accordance with the rules governing its term of office, the exchange council will be re-constituted in its next meeting on 10 June 2009. To that end, the Exchange Supervisory Authority presented the current Saxon Ordinance on Exchange Council Elections, which has recently been amended, to the members of the exchange council. In addition to the trading participants with a total of 19 members elected from within various groups, the German Association of Energy and Water Industries, registered association (BDEW), the German Association of the Energy and Power Supply Industry, registered association (VIK), the Federation of German Industries, registered association (BDI) and the Federation of German Consumer Organisations, registered association (vzbv), delegate one representative each as members of this body of the exchange. In addition to that, one investors’ representative can be elected by the other members of the exchange council.
