Furthermore, EFET will strongly advocate and promote the develop- ment and implementation of European harmonisation and standardis- ation of contracts, electronic data exchange and business processes in gas, electricity and related products in all countries. EFET will co- operate with existing national and regional Energy Trading Associations such as AIGET, NAET, TOE and VOEG, especially on local regulatory issues, in a common understanding that on standardisation only European-wide standards should be promoted and prevail.
4.6 Internal Organisation of EFET
We observe a growing interest for membership from companies in Central and Eastern Europe, from oil and gas companies and last but not least banks. Furthermore, we see an increase in the number of departments and persons within the membership, and an increase in expectations for EFET to play a role in certain activities regarding reg- ulatory and standardisation issues
How will these developments and EFET plans impact the EFET organi- sation?
4.6.1 Building firmer, professional support for all member activities
As a consequence of this growth in involved people and activities, the complexity is growing exponentially. Therefore the EFET secretariat will need additional hands and brains.
4.6.2 Balance between centralisation and decentralisation With the increase in persons involved in EFET work and, with most of the work traditionally performed directly by the members, a further allocation of activities to those who can contribute to EFET will be necessary, while at the same time making sure that EFET is still able to guide and co-ordinate this work.
Bringing up ideas, preparing positions and promoting approved papers are often done in a decentralised way. Members in different groups will receive draft papers and positions, and are asked to contribute their input and add directly to the work in a non-bureaucratic way. On the other hand, we maintain a strong centralised voting system by the EFET Board for determining (sensitive) positions. The EFET Board will continue to base its decisions primarily on positions formulated by the coordinating committees, task forces and/or working groups, in the trust that our key principles of openness, transparency and con- sensus are followed by all groups at all levels within EFET.
It is important for the future of EFET to maintain the consensus spir- it, the pragmatism, a balance between centralisation and decentrali- sation, and a Board with knowledgeable solution-oriented individuals. If these are maintained, we can maintain trust in the EFET organisa- tion and way of working, and avoid bureaucracy while maintaining high output and results.
4.6.3 Communication
Communication with and among our members and to different groups in the market is one of our main challenges. At any given time, a num- ber of projects, papers and meetings are underway and it is a chal-
41 The way forward.
42 The way forward. lenge to keep all relevant persons within the member organisations
informed. Therefore, the web site will increasingly be important to inform all relevant parties. The EFET website will have to develop even more into an information hub. Among the efforts will be pro- moting the use of the member section of the new web site where decentralised uploading is possible. This will allow groups to maintain their own section of the web site and maintain transparency. It will, however, require a lot of discipline to keep all sections updated. 4.6.4 The EFET Board
To reflect changes in our focus areas and membership, the EFET mem- ber companies have elected to the Board representatives from both medium- and large-sized power and gas companies and financial insti- tutions from different geographical regions in parts of Europe. The balance of different interests and regions is reviewed yearly to best accommodate the needs for fair representation and pre-eminent leadership in the Board.
4.6.5 General Meeting (GM)
Membership growth means that it will be impossible to have all mem- bers sitting around one table during future GMs because of physical and technical constraints. But GMs will remain some of the most important meetings within EFET, and provide one of the best opportu- nities for members to participate in the development of EFET strate- gy. In our general meetings members also hear about the full range of activities and can check on the direction in which the Board is taking the Federation. Ultimately members in the GM will determine the composition of the Board.
What to do if you have a good idea?
EFET is very much a bottom up organisation instead of a traditional top down organisation. If you have a good idea, put the proposal in writing or even better, make a draft letter or draft proposal for consideration by other members. We suggest that you send a first draft of your proposal to the secretariat.
This draft will be sent either to an existing internal group or to a refer- ence group to check the proposal and/or improve the draft. This new draft proposal is sent or presented to a larger group or the whole membership, e.g. in GM. Those individuals that make constructive comments and show they are interested to contribute to further improvement are invited to participate in an existing or new Working Group or TF. When a final draft is ready, this final draft needs to be approved by the EFET Board to check that the content is in line with EFET objectives and that the procedure was inclusive.
EFET can be seen as a self-selecting meritocracy, where each individual can and must prove he/she can contribute to practical improvements to pro- mote energy wholesale trading in Europe.
Enthusiastic and active individuals with good ideas are welcome and will be empowered and given the opportunity to contribute to make the trad- ing of energy in Europe the most efficient and effective in the world. It should be realised that many of the successes of EFET started with one per- son presenting an idea.
4.6.6 Secretariat
We have seen growth in members, growth in the number of different departments within the member companies, and related growth in projects and meetings. In addition, an increasing number of other organisations and individuals want to communicate and interact with EFET. The consequence of this is that EFET will need additional staff and project management to maintain and improve the services that we provide to members and other organisations.
4.7 Final reflection
EFET cannot produce optimum efficiency in the functioning of wholesale energy markets by itself. Co-operation between traders and with the other players in the industry is needed and choices must be made.
Significant effort is still required to bring Europe’s wholesale ener- gy market to a reasonable level of openness in all respects. In par- ticular, the gas market in Germany, which is key for all of Europe in terms of volume, transit and price setting, has exhibited no real development of competition and remains opaque.
The electricity sectors of many of the new entrant countries in the EU are not yet subject to competition in any realistic way. And in some longer standing EU member state markets–electricity, gas or both –incumbents remain dominant.
We hope that this booklet will help foster a better understanding about EFET and its work in promoting wholesale energy markets, not only among energy traders but also among all organisations active in the European energy sector. We hope it will help to improve co-operation and improve security of supply and to work toward our objective to accomplish one efficient and effective European energy market, facilitated by wholesale energy trading, and not hindered by borders and other undue obstacles.
In our first six years of existence, EFET has become a significant force for change in the European energy market. We have said that before another six years will have passed, EFET would like to see the European markets for electricity and gas become the most com-
petitive and efficient in the world. We, the wholesale energy
traders, are confident that further rapid progress is feasible. Other stakeholders in the power and gas industries will need to share that confidence, if our continent is to reap the benefits of pre-eminent energy competitiveness and efficiency.
There is much to do in these coming years to achieve our European goals.
Let’s do it jointly!
43 The way forward.
Purpose
EFET promotes and facilitates European energy trading in open, transparent, and liquid wholesale markets unhindered by national borders or other undue obstacles. Vision
We foresee energy markets throughout Europe, where traders efficiently inter- mediate in the value chain on the basis of clear wholesale price signals, thereby optimising supply and demand and enhancing security of supply, to the over- all long term benefit of the economy and of society.
Activities
We improve the operation of European wholesale energy markets and enhance the performance of traders and their sup- port functions in those markets. We rein- force the markets’ functionality and facil- itate their liquidity and transparency. We do this in particular by:
• Providing standard solutions to the repetitive aspects of wholesale energy transactions such as contracting and data exchange
• Advocating policies and regulatory
measures, which allow electricity and gas trading to develop freely in paral- lel, and which minimise obstacles to trading in related instruments and products, including futures and for- wards, other derivatives, emission allowances and “green” certificates
• Encouraging probity, good risk man- agement practices, responsible corpo- rate governance and proper account- ing among energy traders