The Verband der Elektrizitätsunternehmen Österreichs (Association of Austrian Electricity Enterprises) is the trade association of the Austrian electricity sector (producers, distributors, merchants). Already since 1953, the association, whose roughly 140 members generate more than 90 percent of the production of energy in Austria, has represented the interests of the Austrian electricity business nationally and internationally. The full deregulation of the Austrian electricity market in 2001 has changed the conditions substantially. For this reason, it is one of the most important goals of the association to operate as a platform for balancing the interests within the industry.