Regulatory authorities for both electricity and natural gas sectors were established in Romania (the electricity regulator ANRE in 1998 and the natural gas regulator ANRGN in 2000) with the mission to create and implement the appropriate regulatory system to ensure the proper functioning of the electricity and natural gas sector and markets. In 2007, the two regulatory bodies merged under the name of the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) and in 2010 ANRE took over the activity of the Romanian Agency for Energy Conservation (ARCE), therefore assuming the responsibility to monitor and implement energy efficiency measures and promote the use of renewable energy sources to the final consumer. With the purpose to further open up the gas and electricity markets in the European Union, in July 2009 the European Parliament and the European Council adopted the European Union's Third Energy Package whose transposition in national legislation was completed in 2012, as follows: in June when the Parliament passed the Electricity and Natural Gas Law (Law No. 123/2012) and in October when the Parliament passed the Law regarding the organization and functioning of ANRE (Law No.160/2012). ANRE is an autonomous administrative body under Parliamentary control, entirely self-financed and independent as regards its decision-making process, organisation and functioning, whose scope of activity is to issue, approve and monitor the implementation of the national-wide binding regulatory framework required for the proper functioning of the electricity, heat and natural gas sectors and markets in terms of efficiency, competition, transparency and consumer protection. ANRE is headed by a President and two Vice-presidents appointed by the Romanian Parliament for a period of 5 years, a mandate that can be renewed only once.