L 76/6 Official Journal of the European Union 15.3.2006 COMMISSION DECISION of 8 March 2006 establishing that Article 30(1) of Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors applies to electricity generation in England, Scotland and Wales (notified under document number C(2006) 690) (Only the English text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2006/211/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors (), and in particular Article 30(4) and (6) thereof, Having regard to the request submitted by the United Kingdom by e-mail of 2 November 2005 and confirmed by a signed fax of 8 November 2005, and to the additional information requested by Commission staff by e-mail of 2 December 2005 and submitted by the United Kingdom by e-mail of 12 January 2006, Having regard to the conclusions of the independent national authority, the Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM), that the conditions for the applicability of Article 30(1) of Directive 2004/17/EC would be met, Whereas: (1)  Article 30 of Directive 2004/17/EC provides that contracts intended to enable the performance of one of the activities to which the Directive applies shall not be subject to the Directive if, in the Member State in which it is carried out, the activity is directly exposed to compe- tition on markets to which access is not restricted. Direct exposure to competition is assessed on the basis of objective criteria, taking account of the specific charac- teristics of the sector concerned. Access is deemed to be unrestricted if the Member State has implemented and applied the relevant Community legislation opening a given sector or a part of it. This legislation is listed in Annex XI of Directive 2004/17[EC, which, for the elec- (") O] L 134, 30.4.2004, p. 1. Commission Regulation (EC) No 20.12.2005, p. 28). Directive as last amended by 2083/2005 (O] L 333, ( ( ( ( tricity sector, refers to Directive 96/92/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 1996 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity (3). Directive 96/92/EC has been superseded by Directive 2003/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2003 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity and repealing Directive 96/92/EC (*), which requires an even higher degree of market opening. 2)  Under Article 62(2) of Directive 2004/17/EC, Title III of that Directive setting out the rules on service design contests does not apply to contests organised for the pursuit, in the Member State concerned, of an activity to which the applicability of Article 30(1) of the Directive has been established by a Commission decision or has been deemed applicable under the second or third subparagraph of Article 30(4) or the fourth subparagraph of Article 30(5). 3)  The request submitted by the United Kingdom concerns electricity production in England, Scotland and Wales. Given the unified character of the markets of these three geographical areas and the limited capacity (*) of the connections between the United Kingdom networks and those of other areas of the Community, England, Scotland and Wales should be considered to constitute the relevant market for the purposes of evaluating the conditions laid down in Article 30(1) of Directive 2004/17[EC. This conclusion is consistent with one of the findings of the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament: Report on progress in creating the internal gas and elec- tricity market (°), hereafter referred to as the 2005 Report’, that ‘in economic terms electricity markets in the EU remain national in economic scope’. 4) This assessment, and any other contained in this Decision, is made solely for the purposes of Directive 2004/17EC and is without prejudice to the application of the rules on competition. 2 OJ L 27, 30.1.1997, p. 20. ) ) OJ L 176, 15.7.2003, p. 37. %) Of the order of approximately 4 % of peak demand. ) 5) COM(2005) 568 final of 15.11.2005.