Consultation on discounts, multipliers and seasonal factors
Article 28
1. At the same time as the final consultation carried out in accordance with Article 26(1), the national regulatory authority shall conduct a consultation with the national regulatory authorities of all directly connected Member States and the relevant stakeholders on the following: (a) the level of multipliers; (b) if applicable, the level of seasonal factors and the calculations set out in Article 15; (c) the levels of discounts set out in Articles 9(2) and 16. After the end of the consultation a motivated decision shall be taken in accordance with Article 41(6)(a) of Directive 2009/73/EC on the aspects referred to in points (a) to (c) of this paragraph. Each national regulatory authority shall consider the positions of national regulatory authorities of directly connected Member States. 2. The subsequent consultations shall be conducted every tariff period as from the date of the decision referred to in paragraph 1. After each consultation and as set out in Article 32(a), the national regulatory authority shall take and publish a motivated decision on the aspects referred to in paragraph 1(a), (b) and (c). 3. When adopting the decision referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, the national regulatory authority shall take into account the consultation responses received and the following aspects: (a) for multipliers: (i) the balance between facilitating short-term gas trade and providing long-term signals for efficient investment in the transmission system; (ii) the impact on the transmission services revenue and its recovery; (iii) the need to avoid cross-subsidisation between network users and to enhance cost-reflectivity of reserve prices; (iv) situations of physical and contractual congestion; (v) the impact on cross-border flows; (b) for seasonal factors: (i) the impact on facilitating the economic and efficient utilisation of the infrastructure; (ii) the need to improve the cost-reflectivity of reserve prices.