The independence of National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) is an essential feature of the internal energy market. New legislative provisions providing for further harmonisation of the powers and strengthening of the independence of the NRAs were created in 2003 and reviewed in 2009.
The 2009 Directives are broader in scope as the NRAs are now also charged with the more general objective of achieving an internal energy market. In 2010, the European Commission published an interpretative note on the 2009 Directives, where it clarified extensively the manner in which it interprets the objectives and tasks of the NRAs.
In this context, the general objective of our Study was to assess the de jure and de facto independence of the national regulatory authorities (NRAs) in the field of energy and their effectiveness in performing key tasks in the following 12 Member States: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. Have a look at our Study, to know more about this interesting topic!