ACER Director visits Poland
Christian Zinglersen, director of the EU Agency for Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) visited Poland today at the invitation of the President of the Energy Regulatory Office (URE). The purpose of the visit was, inter alia, to discuss the most relevant challenges of the Polish energy market and activities planned within the sector transformation. ACER plays a key role in the process of European energy policy priorities’ implementation.
- I have been looking forward to this for quite some time to come back to Warsaw to meet Rafał Gawin and his team as well as other Polish decision-makers. I find it very valuable to exchange views on a number of energy market and network issues, currently undergoing massive change at European, regional and national level. Many of those changes will be impacted by the regulatory choices we make, thus making the need for dialogue even greater – said Christian Zinglersen, Director of ACER.
- National regulatory authorities, such as URE, protect consumers, promote effective competition and supervise the energy market, including market manipulation. In this respect, the role of ACER and the cooperation enabled by the Agency cannot be overestimated - emphasized Rafał Gawin, URE President.
The President of URE and the Director of ACER discussed the most important issues concerning the ongoing transformation of the energy sector in the light of challenges regarding implementation of EU legislation and the role of regulatory authorities in this process. Christian Zinglersen and Rafał Gawin also met with Michał Kurtyka, Minister of Climate and Environment, and representatives of Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (Polish TSO).
Christian Zinglersen has been managing the Agency since the beginning of 2020. His candidacy for the Agency's director was upon by a positive opinion from the ACER Board of Regulators. The term of office of the Agency Director is 5 years, with one possible extension.
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- The Agency for Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) is an EU agency seated in Ljubljana. It has been operating since 2011.
- Its main tasks include e.g.: facilitating cooperation between the National Regulatory Authorities and between the regulatory bodies at a regional and EU level, as well as providing framework within which regulators can cooperate.
- ACER is also entitled to monitor internal markets in electricity and natural gas, in particular retail prices of electricity and gas, access to network, including access to energy generated from renewable energy sources, as well as observance of the consumer rights.
- The cooperation between the President of URE and ACER is first of all aimed at integrating national markets into a single EU energy market. This cooperation is carried out mostly through ACER Board of Regulators, an opinion giving body which constitutes a cooperation platform for regulators within the Agency. Moreover, URE is also involved in works of several working groups and task forces which were created in order to strengthen and intensify the cooperation between regulators at the EU level. The primary objective of these groups is to support the Agency and work together to create an internal energy market.
Media contact:
Spokesperson
Department of Public Communication URE
rzecznik@ure.gov.pl
tel. 601 252 655
