§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the mandate of the Committee on Experts on the Transit of Natural Gas through Grids is; how many times it has met over the last 12 months; what the UK representation on it is; what the annual cost of its work is to public funds; if he will list the items currently under its consideration; if he will take steps to increase its accountability and transparency to Parliament; and if he will make a statement. [61710]
§ Ms HewittI have been asked to reply.
The mandate of the Committee is to conciliate in disputes between network operators over conditions for the use of gas transit pipelines, as set out in Article 3 of Council Directive 91/296/EEC of 31 May 1991 on the transit of natural gas through grids.
The Committee has not met in the past 12 months. The UK representation is provided by Lattice Group plc. There is no UK public funding of this Committee. There are no items currently under consideration by the Committee.
The Commission's current proposals for liberalising the European energy market would repeal Directive 91/296/EEC and so remove the legal base for this Committee.