The Visegrad Countries confirmed their commitment toward extending the successful Czech-Slovakian-Hungarian market integration to Poland at the closing meeting of the Hungarian presidency of the Central Eastern European Forum for Electricity Market Integration (CEEE Forum) held in Budapest on 18 June 2013.

In addition to the representatives of the line ministries, regulatory authorities, system operators and power exchanges of the regional countries the delegates of the European Commission and the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) also participated in the meeting. The Czech-Slovakian-Hungarian project operating since September 2012 with an aim to integrate electricity markets may be expanded to Poland and Romania. The commitment confirmed by the V4 countries at the closing meeting was a step toward the extension of the successful Czech-Slovakian-Hungarian market integration to Poland. The project is a significant move toward creating a European internal electricity market whose target date of 2014 was accepted by the heads of states and governments of the European Union in February 2011.            

In addition to promoting regional market integration the presidency-in-office held by Hungary provided an opportunity to initiate the earliest efficient management of loop flow related problems at regional and community level. The participants of the CEEE Forum agreed that loop flows had a negative effect on the safe operation of the electricity systems of the neighbouring countries, resulting from the significant increase of renewable energy based electric power generation in relation to the gradual shut-down of German nuclear power stations. These phenomena do not only make the safe operation of the member states' electricity systems difficult, but also reduce international commercial turnover by engaging the capacity of electric cables crossing the borders. For this reason the Hungarian presidency prepared a draft action plan for the management of loop flow related problems at the meeting of the CEEE Forum held last October. Raising and keeping the subject on the agenda provided a significant contribution to seeking solutions at European Union level. In the recent period several initiatives to identify and manage problems and to find a more optimal cost sharing solution have been started with the involvement of the European Commission, the ACER and the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E).      

The main target of the CEEE Forum is to create a ministerial level East Central European platform for the policy level support of regional electricity market integration. Decision about setting up a consultation body was made in December 2009 by the competent ministers of Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Slovenia. The presidency-in-office currently held by Hungary will be taken over by Poland as from 1 July 2013.

(Ministry of National Development)