ACER is one of the decentralized agencies of the European Union. Both emphasize that ACER is a European agency and that Dutch employees in ACER are therefore not particularly committed to Dutch interests.Īn independent agency with a limited but increasing mandateĪCER was founded in 2011 and is based in Ljubljana.Dennis Hesseling has been head of the Gas Department since 2012.Martin Godfried has been with ACER for 9 years and is head of the Market Surveillance and Conduct Department since 2016.(This article is a translation of an article that was published earlier at Energeia.) Both have been a member of ACER's management team for many years. I spoke with Martin Godfried and Dennis Hesseling about the importance of ACER for the Dutch energy sector. One of the leading European bodies is ACER, the European regulator, or rather, the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators. European legislation determines Dutch energy policy, there is a European gas and electricity market and the climate challenge is an international challenge by definition. The energy debate in the Netherlands sometimes seems to care little about European developments.
