Concession agreements entered into between the Portuguese State and the companies owned by the EGF Group have as their object the exploration and management of a system for the treatment and selective collection of municipal waste in 174 municipalities of mainland Portugal.

The monitoring of the sector, under Decret-Law 10/2014 of March 6, is committed to an economic regulator, specifically the economic regulation of management entities, ensuring the practice of prices that, in an environment of efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of the service , to ensure the economic and financial viability of these entities, and to this end, the Board of Directors has the authority to approve regulations with external effectiveness in tariff matters.

The Regulatory Authority for Water and Waste Services - ERSAR, has as its mission the regulation and supervision of the sector of urban solid waste management services, as defined in the statutes of the regulator see: http://www.ersar.pt/ en / a-ersar / mission-attributions-and-powers.

We highlight some of ERSAR's competences:

1 —ERSAR attributions of behavioral regulation in economic aspects:

• Establish tariffs for state-owned systems, as well as supervise other economic and financial aspects of entities that manage state-owned systems, in particular by issuing opinions, proposals and recommendations, as defined in the applicable legislation and regulations;
• Regulate, evaluate and audit the establishment and application of tariffs in municipal ownership systems, regardless of the management model, in the terms defined in the applicable legislation and regulations;
• Issue recommendations on the compliance of the tariffs of the municipal systems with the established in the tariff regulation and other applicable legislation, as well as to supervise and sanction their non-compliance;
• Issue, in the situations and terms established in the law, binding instructions as to the tariffs to be practiced by municipal ownership systems that do not comply with the legal and regulatory provisions in force.
• Ensure detailed invoicing by service providers, within a framework of identification of the various parcels that make up the final invoice value, aiming at the breakdown of the different components of costs related to water, sanitation, waste and others.

2 — ERSAR's attributions of behavioral regulation are also:

• To supervise compliance by the legal and regulatory entities and contractual entities, particularly in the creation, tendering, contracting, contractual alteration, reconfiguration and extinction phases, guaranteeing the public interest and legality;
• Ensure the regulation of the quality of service provided to the users by the management entities, promoting the improvement of service levels, evaluating the performance of these entities, comparing the entities among each other and rewarding reference cases;
• To promote the comparison and public disclosure of the activity of the managing entities, materializing a fundamental right of access to the information that assists to all the users and consolidating a culture of availability of information concise, credible and of easy interpretation;
• Ensure the protection of users' rights and interests in relation to tariffs, services and quality of service and to promote the resolution of disputes with management entities;
• Promote the participation of users of the services, creating mechanisms for advice and dissemination of information;
• To know the complaints of the users and the conflicts that involve the managing entities, analyzing them, promoting the use of the conciliation and arbitration between the parties as a form of resolution of conflicts and taking the measures that it considers urgent and necessary;

EGF's management objectives are to promote the national economy and ensure that the public service provided by its companies is financially balanced, keeping in mind that its service must reflect the highest quality at the lowest cost to the citizen.

In this context, it is important to highlight the high levels of investment that have been achieved and to achieve operational efficiency, in a clear demonstration of a commitment to keep EGF as a national and international reference.