DIRECTIVE 94/22/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 30 May 1994 on the conditions for granting and using authorizations for the prospection, exploration and production of hydrocarbons

‘competent authorities’ means the public authorities, as defined in Article 1 (1) of Directive 90/531/EEC, which are responsible for granting authorization and/or monitoring use thereof;

‘entity’ means any natural or legal person or any group of such persons which applies for, is likely to apply for or holds an authorization;

‘authorization’ means any law, regulation, administrative or contractual provision or instrument issued thereunder by which the competent authorities of a Member State entitle an entity to exercise, on its own behalf and at its own risk, the exclusive right to prospect or explore for or produce hydrocarbons in a geographical area. An authorization may be granted for each activity separately or for several activities at a time;

‘public entity’ means a public undertaking as defined in Article 1 (2) of Directive 90/531/EEC.

if the geographical areas are not delimited on the basis of a prior geometric division of the territory, the extent of each area is determined in such a way that it does not exceed the area justified by the best possible exercise of the activities from the technical and economic points of view. In the case of authorizations granted following the procedures laid down in Article 3 (2), objective criteria shall be established to this end and shall be made available to the entities prior to the submission of applications;

the duration of an authorization does not exceed the period necessary to carry out the activities for which the authorization is granted. However, the competent authorities may prolong the authorization where the stipulated duration is insufficient to complete the activity in question and where the activity has been performed in accordance with the authorization;

entities do not retain exclusive rights in the geographical area for which they have received an authorization for longer than is necessary for the proper performance of the authorized activities.

authorizations are granted on the basis of criteria concerning, in all cases:

and, where applicable:

The competent authorities may also take account, when appraising applications, of any lack of efficiency and responsibility displayed by the applicants in operations under previous authorizations.

Where the competent authorities determine the composition of an entity to which they may grant an authorization, they shall make that determination on the basis of objective and non-discriminatory criteria.

Where the competent authorities determine the operator of an entity to which they may grant an authorization, they shall make that determination on the basis of objective and non-discriminatory criteria.

The criteria shall be drawn up and published in the Official Journal of the European Communities before the start of the period for submission of applications. Member States which have already published the criteria in their official journals may limit the publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities to a reference to the publication in their official journals. However, any change in criteria shall be published in full in the Official Journal of the European Communities;

the conditions and requirements concerning the exercise or termination of the activity which apply to each type of authorizations by virtue of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions in force at the time of submission of the applications, whether contained in the authorization or being one of the conditions to be accepted prior to the grant of such authorization, are established and made available to interested entities at all times. In the case provided for in Article 3 (2) (a), they may be made available only from the date starting from which applications for authorization may be submitted;

any changes made to the conditions and requirements in the course of the procedure are notified to all interested entities;

the criteria, conditions and requirements referred to in this Article are applied in a non-discriminatory manner;

any entity whose application for an authorization is unsuccessful is, if the entity so wishes, informed of the reasons for the decision.