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The EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) has submitted its response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the functioning of the commodity derivatives markets, with a focus on the interplay between energy and financial market regulation.
ACER believes that it is of importance to add sector-specific context to the consultation with respect to the functioning of wholesale energy markets and the specifics of Regulation No 1227/2011 on Wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT). The fundamental differences between financial and energy markets are the reason why Europe has (since 2011) a dedicated and highly successful energy-sector specific framework to ensure open and fair competition in Europe’s wholesale energy markets.
ACER’s input to this consultation draws on many years of experience of national energy regulators enforcing REMIT, and ACER as the EU energy regulatory agency, protecting consumers and citizens from energy market manipulation and abuse (through its monitoring activities). It outlines the evolution of the REMIT framework with the revised Regulation (2024), including ACER’s evolving role as a wholesale energy market data reference centre.
Put simply, ACER’s position is that European consumers and businesses benefit enormously from the sophisticated EU-wide (REMIT) framework that protects energy markets from abuse. REMIT plays a crucial role in ensuring fairness, transparency and integrity of the wholesale energy market and as such should be the starting point for any further enhancements.
ACER’s response covers different aspects of the consultation, including:
- data aspects;
- position limits, management and reporting; and
- supervisory cooperation.
ACER recommends building on what already works well under REMIT and financial legislation, and to further strengthen the cooperation with the EU Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in areas such as data sharing, notifications to energy and financial regulators, coordination mechanisms and best practices exchange.
