European electricity market will open on 1 March 2002

A temporary cross-border tariff system will be introduced in electricity trading within Europe as of the beginning of March, enabling electricity transmission across national borders using simple and uniform rules. This is an important step in competition within the electricity market in the whole of Europe. The decision concerning the temporary cross-border tariff was made by the Steering Committee of ETSO (European Transmission System Operators) in its meeting of 19 February.Austria is not involved in the arrangement in the initial stages. The necessary modifications have not yet been made to the Austrian legal framework so that the Austrian transmission system operators could sign the cross-border tariff contract before the beginning of March. However, Austria will likely join the arrangement before 1 July 2002.

The the temporary cross-border mechanism will be in force until the end of 2002. ETSO is already working on a more permanent cross-border trade system.