Vilis KRIŠTOPANS

What Vilis KRIŠTOPANS has said (4)

• 2025-07-02 “E-002706/2025 Answer given by Mr Jørgensen on behalf of the European Commission ‘Proportionality’ is always assessed on a case-by-case basis. In this case, it should be assessed in light of the service provided to the customer and cost incurred by the supplier. National regulatory bodies or the Commission's own reports or communications are a good resource to explore specific national examples. In the Commission’s view, ‘Direct economic loss’ should entail only costs incurred by suppliers, directly related to customers' termination of contracts, including costs of any bundle investments or services already provided (e.g. administrative or acquisition costs). Any future possible profit loss should not be included as this cannot be directly related to the switching of individual customers. The burden of proof is on the supplier, and the national regulatory authority should monitor the permissibility of such fees. The Commission regularly publishes information 1 on its enforcement activities, press releases 2 on Member State’s compliance with EU law, and information about Commission decisions 3 on infringements. The Commission currently assesses transposition of the Electricity Directive 4 in all Member States, including Latvia, but does not comment on the contents of individual ongoing infringements. 1 https://ec.europa.eu/implementing-eu-law/home. 2 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/inf_23_3445. 3 https://ec.europa.eu/implementing-eu-law/search-infringement-decisions. 4 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/944/oj/eng.”
  EU approach to electricity market and prices
• 2025-07-02 “E-002705/2025 Answer given by Mr Jørgensen on behalf of the European Commission Directive (EU) 2019/944 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on common rules for the internal market for electricity 1 (Electricity Directive) aims to improve consumer rights and protections and, among others, sets clear rules restricting switchingrelated fees to improve consumer welfare and competition in the market. Switching-related fees as defined in Article 2(17) of the Electricity Directive mean a charge or penalty for changing suppliers, including contract termination fees, that is directly or indirectly imposed on customers. Pursuant to Article 12(2), Member States shall ensure that at least household customers and small enterprises are not charged any switching-related fees. By way of derogation, as set out in Article 12(3), Member State may, if they wish, permit suppliers to charge contract termination fees where customers terminate fixed-term, fixedprice electricity supply contracts before their maturity, provided that i) such fees are part of a contract; ii) such fees are clearly communicated to the customer and iii) the fee is proportionate and does not exceed the direct economic loss to the supplier. The burden of proof is on the supplier and the national regulatory authority should monitor the permissibility of such fees. The Commission's services are currently assessing transposition of the Electricity Directive in all Member States, including Latvia. The Commission will be in a position to provide a more detailed reply on compliance of switching fee related provisions set in Latvian law with the EU legislation once the transposition and compliance checks are completed. 1 OJ L 158, 14.6.2019, p. 125–199.”
  EU approach to electricity market and prices
• 2024-11-20 “E-002594/2024 Answer given by Mr Šefčovič on behalf of the European Commission To support the Ukrainian economy following Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU liberalised all imports from Ukraine for which the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine 1 limited trade concessions to tariff-rate quotas, by Regulation (EU) 2022/870 2 of 30 May 2022. The measures were prolonged twice 3 and the current iteration will expire on 5 June 2025. These measures concern agricultural products and processed agricultural products. Under their last iteration from mid-2024, and in order to protect European farmers from growing import levels, automatic safeguards were introduced to limit duty-free imports for the most sensitive sectors, namely sugar, poultry, eggs, maize, honey, oats and groats. The Commission estimates that the value of Ukrainian agricultural products and processed agricultural products not subject to duties thanks to the measures 4 was around EUR 2.1 billion in 2023 out of the total of Ukraine’s agricultural exports to the EU, which amounted about EUR 12 billion. In 2024, the value of Ukrainian duty-free exports of agricultural products and processed agricultural products not subject to duties thanks to the measures is estimated at EUR 1.8 billion, a reduction due to the activation of automatic safeguards. Specifically for eggs and egg products, the value of Ukrainian duty-free exports to the EU in 2023 and 2024 is estimated at EUR 74 million and EUR 38 million, respectively. 1 Association Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02014A0529%2801%29-20231201 2 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/870/oj 3 Regulation (EU) 2023/1077 of 31 May 2023; https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1077/oj and Regulation (EU) 2024/1392 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024; https://eurlex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1392/oj 4 Based on Eurostat trade data.”
  Import of agri-food products in the EU
• 2024-11-20 “E-002593/2024 Answer given by Mr Šefčovič on behalf of the European Commission The Commission monitors closely the impact of the autonomous trade measures 1 adopted by the European Parliament and the Council and submits its report to the European Parliament regularly 2 . This analysis takes into account the information on exports, imports, prices on the EU market as well as EU production of the concerned products. The current autonomous trade measures include a strengthened safeguard clause, and an emergency brake designed to limit the imports of certain sensitive products. Imports from Ukraine are subject to the same sanitary and phytosanitary standards as imports from any third country are. In addition, regarding animal welfare standards, while EU rules on animal welfare at farm level are not applicable for food imported into the EU, EU rules on the protection of animals at the time of slaughter, or equivalent rules, need to be respected for the import of meat into the EU. Finally, in the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement 3 and its deep and comprehensive free trade area, Ukraine has committed to align to EU legislation on production standards. For example, Ukraine has committed to implement EU animal welfare legislation by 2026. The upcoming review of the trade reciprocal liberalisation in accordance with Article 29 of the Association Agreement will be an opportunity to link Ukraine’s alignment to EU production standards to further trade liberalisation, in view of its path towards EU accession. 1 http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1392/oj 2 Via the secretariat of European Parliament's Committee on International Trade. 3 http://data.europa.eu/eli/agree_internation/2014/295/oj”
  EU enlargement