Report on Monitoring NRAs’ Independence

26 April 2021

Today, CEER publishes its report on Monitoring NRAs’ Independence. The report relies on the responses provided by 29 energy national regulatory authorities (NRAs) (24 CEER Members and 5 CEER Observers) to a dedicated survey which contained CEER’s own questions, as well as questions used for the OECD Indicators of Product Market Regulation for the first half of 2020. This report provides a status review on NRA independence four years after a previous CEER report on the topic.

The report has a number of interesting findings:

• Over the last five years, NRAs’ duties and powers to regulate sectors other than electricity and gas have increased significantly.
• One-third of the NRAs highlighted a lack of resources (funding), which in their view is not consistent with NRA independence principles.
• NRA independence is explicitly stated in law in most countries and the national legislation of some NRAs’ countries contains a legal definition of the NRA’s independence.
• NRAs have experienced growth in their staff numbers throughout the last three years, while the share of staff members dedicated to energy regulation has either remained the same or increased in proportion to the overall staff numbers.
• Only a few NRAs require a ‘cooling off’ period for their permanent staff pursuing professional activities in the regulated sector.
• Most NRAs receive their financial resources from market participants via fees and other contributions.
• Almost all NRAs have sanctioning powers for imposing penalties for non-compliance.

To read more on these topics and other findings, please find the full report here.

Contact:

 brussels@ceer.eu

Tel: +32 2 788 73 30

www.ceer.eu

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