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1. Following the adoption of a decision pursuant to Article 14(7), the Member State with identified structural congestion shall develop an action plan in cooperation with its regulatory authority. That action plan shall contain a concrete timetable for adopting measures to reduce the structural congestions identified within four years of the adoption of the decision pursuant to Article 14(7).

2. Irrespective of the concrete progress of the action plan, Member States shall ensure that without prejudice to derogations granted under Article 16(9) or deviations under Article 16(3), the cross-zonal trade capacity is increased on an annual basis until the minimum capacity provided for in Article 16(8) is reached. That minimum capacity shall be reached by 31 December 2025.

Those annual increases shall be achieved by means of a linear trajectory. The starting point of that trajectory shall be either the capacity allocated at the border or on a critical network element in the year before adoption of the action plan or the average during the three years before adoption of the action plan, whichever is higher. Member States shall ensure that, during the implementation of their action plans the capacity made available for cross-zonal trade to be compliant with Article 16(8) is at least equal to the values of the linear trajectory, including by use of remedial actions in the capacity calculation region.

3. The cost of the remedial actions necessary to achieve the linear trajectory referred to in paragraph 2 or make available cross-zonal capacity at the borders or on critical network elements concerned by the action plan shall be borne by the Member State or Member States implementing the action plan.

4. On an annual basis, during the implementation of the action plan and within six months of its expiry, the relevant transmission system operators shall assess for the previous 12 months whether the available cross-border capacity has reached the linear trajectory or, from 1 January 2026, the minimum capacities provided for in Article 16(8) have been achieved. They shall submit their assessments to ACER and to the relevant regulatory authorities. Before drafting the report, each transmission system operator shall submit its contribution to the report, including all the relevant data, to its regulatory authority for approval.

5. For those Member States for which the assessments referred to in paragraph 4 demonstrate that a transmission system operator has not complied with the linear trajectory, the relevant Member States shall, within six months of receipt of the assessment report referred to in paragraph 4, decide unanimously whether to amend or maintain the bidding zone configuration within and between those Member States. In their decision, the relevant Member States should take account of any comments submitted by other Member States. The relevant Member States' decision shall be substantiated and shall be notified to the Commission and to ACER. The relevant Member States shall notify the Commission immediately if they fail to reach a unanimous decision within the timeframe laid down. Within six months of receipt of such notification, the Commission, as a last resort and after consulting ACER and the relevant stakeholders shall adopt a decision whether to amend or maintain the bidding zone configuration in and between those Member States.

6. Six months before the expiry of the action plan, the Member State with identified structural congestion shall decide whether to address remaining congestion by amending its bidding zone or whether to address remaining internal congestion with remedial actions for which it shall cover the costs.

7. Where no action plan is established within six months of identification of structural congestion pursuant to Article 14(7), the relevant transmission system operators shall, within 12 months of identification of such structural congestion, assess whether the available cross-border capacity has reached the minimum capacities provided for in Article 16(8) during the previous 12 months and shall submit an assessment report to the relevant regulatory authorities and to ACER. Before drafting the report, each transmission system operator shall send its contribution to the report, including all relevant data, to its national regulatory authority for approval. Where the assessment demonstrates that a transmission system operator has not complied with the minimum capacity, the decision-making process laid down in paragraph 5 of this Article shall apply.