GME informs market participants that, as of today, with the publication on its website, the amended text of the Natural-Gas Market Rules (hereafter MGAS Rules) will enter into force. GME amended the MGAS Rules to introduce provisions governing the operation of the new Market for the Management of Voluntary Solidarity Measures (hereafter MVS), in compliance with Legislative Decree 14/2021 (Disposizioni per l’adeguamento della normativa nazionale alle disposizioni del regolamento UE 2017/2038 - Provisions for aligning the national legislation with Regulation (EU) 2017/1938), and with Regulation (EU) 2017/1938, as supplemented by Regulation (EU) 2024/1789 (hereafter Regulation).
Also the new Technical Rule no. 23 MGAS, containing the implementing and procedural provisions for the MVS, will enter into force as of today, with its publication on GME’s website.
As is known, the Regulation introduces, inter alia, the so-called “solidarity mechanism”. This mechanism serves as a last-resort option for Member States to address extreme gas emergency situations that cannot be resolved by other measures included in their National Emergency Plans. Specifically, under this mechanism, a Member State experiencing an exceptional gas emergency may request solidarity from one or more Member States in order to procure the gas resources that it requires to manage the emergency. The mechanism provides that the Member State receiving the solidary request must satisfy such request by resorting, on a priority basis, to market-based measures (voluntary measures), or to non-market-based measures if market-based measures prove insufficient to ensure the necessary supplies to the Member State declaring the state of emergency.
In this regard, as indicated above, GME introduced the MVS into the MGAS. The MVS is a trading platform dedicated to voluntary solidarity measures, on which GME will not play the role of central counterparty.
The MVS will be open to:
- buyers: the requesting Member States or their designated parties, acting on behalf of the requesting Member States and notified by SRG to GME; such buyers must priorly acquire the status of MGAS participants;
- sellers: the holders of redelivery points qualifying as interruptible-supply consumers and notified by SRG to GME; such sellers, too, must priorly acquire the status of MGAS participants.
In the MVS:
- the solidarity-requesting Market Participants will directly select supply offers of their interest from the MVS order book (using the catching trading mechanism);
- the concluded transactions, valued at the price quoted in the selected supply offer, will be directly registered at the PSV by the Market Participants involved, which will also settle the related payment.
GME will activate the sessions of the MVS at the request of SRG – if the above conditions arise – and notify MGAS Participants thereof. Therefore, all the parties wishing to participate in the sessions of the MVS must acquire the status of MGAS participants beforehand, in accordance with the MGAS Rules, by submitting to GME the documents available on its website at:
https://www.mercatoelettrico.org/Home/MarketAccess/Gas/M-GAS/HowParticipate/Forms
GME also informs Market Participants that a document entitled Schema di processo per l’attuazione delle misure di mercato previste dal Regolamento UE 2017/1938, art. 13 (Process diagram for implementing the market-based measures set forth in art. 13 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938) is available on the website of SRG. The document describes the procedures for organising, activating, and performing the market-based measures that can be activated when a Member State requests solidarity under the Regulation.
Finally, for parties wishing to take part in the MVS and test its features, GME will organise blank test sessions, whose procedures and calendar will be provided in a subsequent communication.
NATURAL-GAS MARKET
- MGAS Rules
- Technical Rule no. 23 MGAS