15.7.2003 Official Journal of the European Union L 176/57 DIRECTIVE 2003/55/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 26 June 2003 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas and repealing Directive 98/30/EC THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 47(2), Article 55 and Article 95 thereof, Having regard to the proposals from the Commission (1), Having regard to the Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (2), Having consulted the Committee of the Regions, Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (?), Whereas: (1)  Directive 98/30/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas (*) has made significant contributions towards the creation of an internal market for gas. (2)  Experience in implementing this Directive shows the benefits that may result from the internal market in gas, in terms of efficiency gains, price reductions, higher standards of service and increased competitiveness. However, significant shortcomings and possibilities for improving the functioning of the market remain, notably concrete provisions are needed to ensure a level playing field and to reduce the risks of market dominance and predatory  behaviour, ensuring non-discriminatory transmission and distribution tariffs, through access to the network on the basis of tariffs published prior to their entry into force, and ensuring that the rights of small and vulnerable customers are protected. () OJ C 240 E, 28.8.2001, p. 60 and O] C 227 E, 24.9.2002, p. 393. (3 O] C 36, 8.2.2002, p. 10. (*) Opinion of the European Parliament of 13 March 2002 (O] C 47 E, 27.2.2003, p. 367), Council Common Position of 3 February 2003 (O] C 50 E, 4.3.2003, p. 36) and Decision of the European Parliament of 4 June 2003 (not yet published in the Official Journal). () OJ L 204, 21.7.1998, p. 1. (3) At its meeting in Lisbon on 23 and 24 March 2000, the European Council called for rapid work to be undertaken to complete the internal market in both electricity and gas sectors and to speed up liberalisation in these sectors with a view to achieving a fully operational internal market. The European Parliament, in its Resolution of 6 July 2000 on the Commission’s second report on the state of liberalisation of energy markets, requested the Commission to adopt a detailed timetable for the achievement of accurately defined objectives with a view to gradually but completely liberalising the energy market. The freedoms which the Treaty guarantees European citizens — free movement of goods, freedom to provide services and freedom of establishment — are only possible in a fully open market, which enables all consumers freely to choose their suppliers and all suppliers freely to deliver to their customers. In view of the anticipated increase in dependency as regards natural gas consumption, consideration should be given to initiatives and measures to encourage reciprocal arrangements for access to third-country networks and market integration. The main obstacles in arriving at a fully operational and competitive internal market relate to, amongst other things, issues of access to the network, access to storage, tarification issues, interoperability between systems and different degrees of market opening between Member States. For competition to function, network access must be non-discriminatory, transparent and fairly priced. In order to complete the internal gas market, non-discriminatory access to the network of the transmission and distribution system operators is of paramount importance. A transmission or distribution system operator may consist of one or more undertakings. In case of a gas undertaking performing transmission, distribution, storage or liquefied natural gas (LNG) activities and which is separate in its legal form from those undertakings performing production and/or