1. A transmission system owner, where an independent sys? tem operator has been appointed, and a storage system operator which are part of vertically integrated undertakings shall be inde? pendent at least in terms of their legal form, organisation and decision making from other activities not relating to transmission, distribution and storage.
This Article shall apply only to storage facilities that are techni? cally and/or economically necessary for providing efficient access to the system for the supply of customers pursuant to Article 33.
2. In order to ensure the independence of the transmission sys? tem owner and storage system operator referred to in para? graph 1, the following minimum criteria shall apply:
(a) persons responsible for the management of the transmission system owner and storage system operator shall not partici? pate in company structures of the integrated natural gas undertaking responsible, directly or indirectly, for the day-to- day operation of the production and supply of natural gas;
(b) appropriate measures shall be taken to ensure that the pro? fessional interests of persons responsible for the management of the transmission system owner and storage system opera? tor are taken into account in a manner that ensures that they are capable of acting independently;
(c) the storage system operator shall have effective decision- making rights, independent from the integrated natural gas undertaking, with respect to assets necessary to operate, maintain or develop the storage facilities. This shall not pre? clude the existence of appropriate coordination mechanisms to ensure that the economic and management supervision rights of the parent company in respect of return on assets regulated indirectly in accordance with Article 41(6) in a sub? sidiary are protected. In particular, this shall enable the
parent company to approve the annual financial plan, or any equivalent instrument, of the storage system operator and to set global limits on the levels of indebtedness of its subsid? iary. It shall not permit the parent company to give instruc? tions regarding day-to-day operations, nor with respect to individual decisions concerning the construction or upgrad? ing of storage facilities, that do not exceed the terms of the approved financial plan, or any equivalent instrument; and
(d) the transmission system owner and the storage system opera? tor shall establish a compliance programme, which sets out measures taken to ensure that discriminatory conduct is excluded, and ensure that observance of it is adequately monitored. The compliance programme shall set out the spe? cific obligations of employees to meet those objectives. An annual report, setting out the measures taken, shall be sub? mitted by the person or body responsible for monitoring the compliance programme to the regulatory authority and shall be published.
3. The Commission may adopt Guidelines to ensure full and effective compliance of the transmission system owner and of the storage system operator with paragraph 2 of this Article. Those measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Direc? tive by supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 51(3).
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