. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/N/NLD/8
14 March 2001
(01-1271)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English
NOTIFICATION
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   THE NETHERLANDS
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):           
2. Agency responsible:   Ministry of Economic Affairs
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:           
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X], 2.10.1 [    ], 5.6.2 [    ], 5.7.1 [    ], other:           
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   The draft measure
relates to electricity
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Article 16,
subsection L, of the bill containing Rules with regard to the termination of the agreement on
mutual assistance within the electricity production sector and with regard to the share
ownership of the Transmission System Operator (TSO) of the national grid (the ElectricityProduction Sector Transition Act).
6. Description of content:   By amendment, the Lower House of the Dutch parliament has
supplemented the draft Electricity Production Sector Transition Act with an article that is
included in the 1998 Electricity Act and that means that individual customers can purchase
a maximum of 400 MW transport capacity at the transport capacity auction (Parliamentary
papers II 2000/01, 27 250, no. 22;  Article 13 [previously Article 12] of that bill.
Contravention of this stipulation shall lead to application of the sanctions under the
Competition Act.
One of the provisions connected with the stated stipulation was included in Chapter 5.6 of
the Net code, which means that a party with programme responsibility may nominate no
more than 400 MW of the cross-border transport capacity, added to the connections and
after balancing import and export.  This provision was introduced by the director of the
Energy Performance and Supervision Service as a result of comments from the European
Commission, which requested, in response to the notification of the Net Code, a motivationfor the decision not to set a maximum for the capacity which individual parties could buy up
during the auction.
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:
The background to the stipulation is this: certain customers, by buying-up a large portion of
the transport capacity, can control the import of electricity to the Dutch market and can
therefore manipulate the Dutch market; this must be prevented.  Therefore, the aim of theG/TBT/N/NLD/8
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stipulation is to avoid position of economic pow er by importing electricity and to allow the
auction of transport capacity to run its optimal course.  As a result of the aforementioned
comments, the Dutch government is in agreement with the European Commission that a
similar aim is so important that regulation of the transport capacity auction in the sense
referred to is required.  Insofar as the said st ipulation shall result in an infringement on the
free transport of goods, it is therefore justified, in the opinion of the Dutch government, in
that the provisions for the transport capacity auction are objective, transparent and
non-discriminatory and that the existence of position of economic power by importing
electricity, which may result in considerable manipulation of the electricity market, must be
prevented.
8. Relevant documents:
- Amendment Voûte-Droste/Crone (Parliamentary papers II 2000/01, 27 250, No 22);
- Electricity Production Sector Transition Act;
- Article 5.6.11.3 of the Net Code, as laid down by the director of the Energy
Performance and Supervision Service in the Decree on the allocation of transport
capacity to foreign connections 2001 (No 00-074).
9. Proposed date of adoption:  21 December 2000
Proposed date of entry into force:  1 June 2001
10. Final date for comments:   10 May 2001
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [ X] or address, telephone and fax
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:           