March 21 (SeeNews) - The Energy Community Secretariat said it has escalated an infringement case against Serbia for non-compliance of the national electricity transmission operator Elektromreza Srbije (EMS) with its obligations.
The secretariat sent a reasoned opinion as the second step in the dispute settlement procedure initiated by the secretariat in 2011, due to the lack of participation of EMS in a regional platform for allocation of electricity cross-border capacities, the Energy Community said in a statement on Monday.
Despite various negotiations between the secretariat and the Serbian parties since then, EMS at no point in time complied with the relevant obligations of the Energy Community rules, according to the statement.
EMS is the only contracting party transmission operator that to date does not participate in any regionally coordinated allocation of cross-border capacities, be it the South East European Coordinated Auction Office (SEE CAO) or the Joint Auction Office (JAO), the Energy Community pointed out.
Participation in a regionally coordinated mechanism for allocation of electricity cross-border capacities was already an obligation under the Second Energy Package and continues to be under the Third Energy Package. The failure of EMS to establish a common coordinated congestion management method and procedure for the allocation of capacity to the market and the failure of the national energy regulatory authority, AERS, to ensure compliance in that respect is attributable to Serbia under the Energy Community Dispute Settlement Procedures, the Energy Community said.
In January 2011, the Energy Community Secretariat sent opening letters to Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Montenegro, noting that these six contracting parties have not yet adopted a common coordinated congestion management method and procedure for the allocation of capacity to the market.