Non-discriminatory Third Party Access to the Gas Transmission ...

under Gas law (Article 13 (1b) TGD or/and Article 14 (1a) SGR and national legislation) or
under the competition rules. Having stated what type of rule Article 14 (3) SGR provides, the
following questions must be answered in order to clarify how Article 14 (3) can be applied by a
TSO:
1. What does ‘creditworthiness’ mean in Article 14 (3) SGR
2. When is it appropriate to ask for a guarantee and when is a guarantee appropriate (and
does not constitute undue market-entry barriers and shall be non-discriminatory, transparent
and proportionate)
Questions (1) and (2) are answered below.
§7.1 What does ‘creditworthiness’ mean in Article 14 (3)
The TGD and the SGR do not answer the question of what creditworthiness means. For that
reason it is interesting to look at common understanding with regard to creditworthiness.
According to the Cambridge dictionary, creditworthy describes someone who has enough money
or property for banks and other organizations to be willing to lend them money. The Oxford
dictionary defines creditworthy as: creditworthy (of a person or undertaking) considered suitable
to receive credit, especially because of being reliable in paying money back in the past.
Furthermore, the Van Dale dictionary uses the following description: economically strong
enough to get credit. All of the above definitions aim at a person/undertaking that wants credit
and has to have enough money/property, be suitable or economically strong enough to get the
requested credit. When applying these definitions to Article 14 (3) SGR, creditworthiness
probably means that a system user must be economically strong enough, not to get credit as such,
but specifically with respect to its intended transport obligations. Apart from the meaning of the
word creditworthiness, it is also important to look at the purpose of Article 14 (3) SGR.
Nonetheless, the TGD and the SGR do not mention what the purpose of the provision is. The
following reasons however seem sensible concerning granting or refusing to offer/provide TPA
services subject to the creditworthiness of system users:
(a) In order to secure security of supply to meet transport obligations (and
prevent unexpected decrease of supply);
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