Art. 1 - Subject matter and scope - Regulation 715-2009

This Regulation aims at:

(a) setting non-discriminatory rules for access conditions to natural gas transmission systems taking into account the spe? cial characteristics of national and regional markets with a view to ensuring the proper functioning of the internal market in gas;

(b) setting non-discriminatory rules for access conditions to LNG facilities and storage facilities taking into account the special characteristics of national and regional markets; and

(c) facilitating the emergence of a well-functioning and transparent wholesale market with a high level of security of supply in gas and providing mechanisms to harmonise the network access rules for cross-border exchanges in gas.

The objectives referred to in the first subparagraph shall include the setting of harmonised principles for tariffs, or the methodologies underlying their calculation, for access to the network, but not to storage facilities, the establishment of third-party access services and harmonised principles for capacity-allocation and congestion-management, the determination of transparency requirements, balancing rules and imbalance charges, and the facilitation of capacity trading.

This Regulation, with the exception of Article 19(4), shall apply only to storage facilities falling under Article 33(3) or (4) of Direc? tive 2009/73/EC.

The Member States may establish an entity or body set up in compliance with Directive 2009/73/EC for the purpose of carrying out one or more functions typically attributed to the transmission system operator, which shall be subject to the requirements of this Regulation. That entity or body shall be subject to certification in accordance with Article 3 of this Regulation and shall be subject to designation in accordance with Article 10 of Directive
2009/73/EC.