Brussels, 12 April 2017 | Exactly 15 years ago, on 12 April 2002, seven energy exchanges, the Amsterdam Power Exchange (APX), Borzen, the European Energy Exchange (EEX), Gestore del Mercato Elettrico (GME), Nord Pool, Operador del Mercado Electrico (OMIE) and Powernext founded Europex, the Association of European Energy Exchanges. Today, Europex counts 27 members from across Europe.
In addition, Europex moved its office in December last year from Rue Montoyer 31 to Rue Archimède 44 within the European district in Brussels. The new office space provides its members with a more representative meeting space and further facilitates the dialogue with other stakeholders.
To mark these two special occasions, Europex celebrated its 15th anniversary and the opening of the new office with a festive reception at the new Europex premises yesterday evening. In this context, Mr Krišjānis Kariņš, MEP and the ITRE rapporteur for the Revised Electricity Directive and Regulation as part of the recently published Clean Energy for All Europeans package, gave a keynote speech in which he highlighted that “energy exchanges form the backbone of free, liquid and well-functioning energy markets”.
Pieter Schuurs, the Chairman of Europex, commented: “Since its creation, Europex has grown into a vibrant European energy commodity association that has proved its value as an efficient interface between its Members and the European institutions as well as other stakeholders. I am very proud of what we have achieved so far and am convinced that our Association is well positioned to deliver a relevant contribution to the ongoing debate on how to best achieve a market-driven energy transition.”
Christian Baer, the Secretary General of Europex, added: “The energy markets today look very different from how they used to look 15 years ago. The energy market liberalisation over the last twenty years has proven to be highly successful. We as Europex are honoured to have contributed to this process by continuously promoting market principles and by underlining the importance of a well-functioning, transparent and efficient Internal Energy Market in Europe.”
