The Board of Appeal (BoA) deals with complaints lodged against ACER decisions. Any natural or legal person can appeal against a decision taken by ACER where the Agency has actual decision-making powers (individual decisions).
The decisions of the Board of Appeal may as well be subject to appeal before the Court of Justice of the European Communities.
Board of Appeal
Composition and Independence
The Board of Appeal is part of ACER but at the same time independent from its administrative and regulatory structure. It is essential that members and alternates act independently and in the public interest.
The Board of Appeal is composed by six members and six alternates for a mandate of 5 years (renewable).
Members and alternates are selected among current or former senior staff of the national regulatory authorities, competition authorities or other national or EU institutions with relevant experience in the energy sector.
Board of Appeal
Registry of the Board of Appeal
The Board of Appeal encourages online communication via e-mail. Correspondents in appeal proceedings are asked to submit documents as electronic files.
A word from Volker on his appointment as ACER Director ad interim (from 16 October 2025):
“I am honoured to be entrusted with leading ACER through this interim period from 16 October 2025 until the new Director is recruited. My main goal in the coming months is to ensure that the Agency continues to deliver on its mandate so that this transition is a time of consolidation - steadying the ship and preparing a solid foundation for the future.”
- Volker Zuleger -
ACER Director
Who is the ACER Director and what is the role of the Director?
ACER is managed and represented by its Director.
The Director’s term of office is five years. It may be prolonged by the Administrative Board once only, for a further five years.
Mr Volker Zuleger was appointed Director ad interim of ACER, following a decision by the Agency’s Administrative Board on 12 September. He took over as Director ad interim from 16 October 2025, ensuring the continuity of the service and the proper running of the Agency. He succeeds Mr Christian Zinglersen, who vacated the ACER Director post on 15 October to take up a new position elsewhere.
The Director represents the Agency vis-à-vis external stakeholders and ensures its internal functioning.
He adopts and publishes the official acts (opinions, recommendations and decisions), receiving a favourable opinion from the Board of Regulators.
He is responsible for drafting the annual work programme of the Agency and implementing it under the guidance of the Board of Regulators and the administrative control of the Administrative Board. The Director also draws up a preliminary draft budget and implements the Agency's approved budget.
ACER Director
ACER Director's bio & photos
Download high resolution photos of the ACER Director ad interim, Volker Zuleger:
The Annual Work programme contains ACER's multi-annual outlook, priorities and strategies.
It is prepared by the Director and adopted by the Administrative Board.
Work programme
The adoption process
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Before its adoption, the Administrative Board consults the European Commission and must receive a favourable opinion from the Board of Regulators on the regulatory outline.
After the adoption, the Administrative Board transmits the Work programme to the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the Commission.
Every year ACER produces a Consolidated Annual Activity Report (CAAR) describing the activities performed and the objectives achieved during the year, as indicated in the Work Programme.
Our perspective is European. Our overall purpose is to achieve a transition of the European energy system in line with political objectives set, reaping benefits of increased energy market integration across Europe, and securing low-carbon supply at least possible cost for European businesses and citizens.
ACER fosters a fully integrated and well-functioning Internal Energy Market, where electricity and gas are traded and supplied according to the highest integrity and transparency standards, so that EU consumers can benefit from a wider choice, fair prices and greater protection.
To achieve this, we work closely with the European Institutions, National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs), national governments and market players.
Over time, the Agency received additional tasks and responsibilities to better pursue the integration of the European internal energy market. With the latest provisions adopted in the Clean Energy Package (2019), the Agency has also further strengthened its responsibilities on the coordination with NRAs and cross-border cooperation.
Our mission
Documents
Our main areas of activity are:
Supporting the integration of the EU national energy markets, by developing common network and market rules, coordinating NRAs at European level, as well as by taking part in regional and cross-regional initiatives and organising working groups.
Monitoring the well-functioning and transparency of the EU internal energy market, in order to deter market manipulation and abusive behaviour. Since late 2011, the Agency has the specific mandate of overseeing wholesale energy trading.
Advising the EU Institutions on trans-European energy infrastructural issues. ACER also monitors the work of the European Networks of Transmission System Operators for gas and electricity (ENTSOG and ENTSO-E); issuing opinions on their EU-wide network development plans (TYNDP) and ensuring that these are aligned with the priorities set at European level.
To progress on these activities, the Agency can issue:
non-binding opinions and recommendations to NRAs, transmission system operators (TSOs), and the EU institutions;
binding individual decisions in specific cases and conditions about cross-border infrastructural issues;
draft framework guidelines (as in the case of network codes), on request of the European Commission.
ACER’s Strategy Delivery & Communications team and the Human Resources and Facilities team report directly to the ACER Director and play a central role in providing key support functions to the whole Agency in fulfilling its mandate, objectives and goals.
ACER’s surveillance activities contribute to causing deterrence against market abuse at European level. ACER’s efforts in creating deterrence are reinforced by the community of surveillance experts across Europe.
Specifically, ACER cooperates with surveillance experts from NRAs, energy exchanges, brokers, and financial authorities, in the effort of raising awareness about insider trading and market manipulation. This aims to ultimately contribute to the deterrence of market abuse. In addition, ACER discusses surveillance topics in Roundtable meetings with ACER’s stakeholders.
For further details on the venues used for ACER’s cooperation with surveillance experts and discussion of surveillance topics, consult our section on cooperation.
On a more global level, ACER also collaborates with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Meetings with FERC are organised on an annual basis in order to discuss and exchange ideas on surveillance topics affecting both US and EU markets.
A global cooperation deterring against market abuse
ACER notifies the National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) of suspicious behaviour in two main ways:
by sharing the screened alerts on a monthly basis; and
by sharing an Initial Assessment report, which includes details about the suspicious behaviour by one or more market participants.
The first figure provides a rounded monthly average of the alerts triggered (in thousands) manually assessed (in hundreds), and shared with the NRAs for the years 2017 - 2024.
Note: the monthly average is calculated taking into account only the months for which alerts were shared with the NRAs.
The second figure provides an overview of the number of Initial Assessment reports shared with NRAs (in total per year since 2015).
The map provides an overview of the number of alerts shared per country for the year 2023.
Looking at the total records reported to ACER since the beginning of data reporting, the alerts statistics indicate the amount of resources required in order to assess the REMIT data.
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