Article 3

1. Member States may request the Commission to provide that exploitation of geographical areas for the purpose of exploring for, or extracting, oil, gas, coal or other solid fuels shall not be considered to be an activity defined in Article 2 (2) (b) (i) and that entities shall not be considered as operating under special or exclusive rights within the meaning of Article 2 (3) (b) by virtue of carrying on one or more of these activities, provided that all the following conditions are satisfied with respect to the relevant national provisions concerning such activities: (a)at the time when authorization to exploit such a geographical area is requested, other entities shall be free to seek authorization for that purpose under the same conditions as the contracting entities; (b)the technical and financial capacity of entities to engage in particular activities shall be established prior to any evaluation of the merits of competing applications for authorization; (c)authorization to engage in those activities shall be granted on the basis of objective criteria concerning the way in which it is intended to carry out the exploitation for extraction, which shall be established and published prior to the requests and applied in a non-discriminatory manner; (d)all conditions and requirements concerning the carrying out or termination of the activity, including provisions on operating obligations, royalties, and participation in the capital or revenue of the entities, shall be established and made available prior to the requests for authorization being made and then applied in a non-discriminatory manner; every change concerning these conditions and requirements shall be applied to all the entities concerned, or else amendments must be made in a non-discriminatory manner; however, operating obligations need not be established until immediately before the authorization is granted; and (e)contracting entities shall not be required by any law, regulation, administrative requirement, agreement or understanding to provide information on a contracting entity's intended or actual sources of procurement, except at the request of national authorities and exclusively with a view to the objectives mentioned in Article 36 of the Treaty. ENGMS 20-31theo7-9Thomas 2. Member States which apply the provisions of paragraph 1 shall ensure, through the conditions of the authorization or other appropriate measures, that any entity: (a)observes the principles of non-discrimination and competitive procurement in respect of the award of supplies and works contracts, in particular as regards the information that the entity makes available to undertakings concerning its procurement intentions; (b)communicates to the Commission, under conditions to be defined by the latter in accordance with Article 32, information relating to the award of contracts. 3. As regards individual concessions or authorizations granted before the date on which Member States apply this Directive in accordance with Article 37, paragraphs 1 (a), (b) and (c) shall not apply, provided that at that date other entities are free to seek authorization for the exploitation of geographical areas for the purpose of exploring for or extracting oil, gas, coal or other solid fuels, on a non-discriminatory basis and in the light of objective criteria. Paragraph 1 (d) shall not apply as regards conditions or requirements established, applied or amended before the date referred to above. 4. A Member State which wishes to apply paragraph 1 shall inform the Commission accordingly. In doing so, it shall inform the Commission of any law, regulation or administrative provision, agreement or understanding relating to compliance with the conditions referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2. The Commission shall take a decision in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 32 (4) to (7). It shall publish its decision, giving its reasons, in the Official Journal of the European Communities. It shall forward to the Council each year a report on the implementation of this Article and review its application in the framework of the report provided for in Article 36.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-31 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.