Brussels, 10/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - In terms of current affairs, the Commission has prioritised the migration crisis and drawn up a balance sheet of European action in this connection, which it published on Wednesday 10 February. It has subsequently decided to postpone publication of the Energy Union's Winter Package until 16 November.
On Tuesday 9 February, Commission Spokesperson, Margaritis Schinas, announced that the Winter Package “will be discussed on Wednesday at the college of commissioners but it will be adopted by written procedure and presented on 16 February by the Commission Vice President in Charge of the Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic and the Commissioner for Energy, Miguel Arias Canete”.
On Wednesday 10 February, a Commission source informed us that “There is no political reason behind this postponement. We wanted to get the press's attention for each of these two important questions by reducing the agenda”.
The Energy Union's Winter Package is also known as the “gas security package”. It includes a revised draft regulation on the security of gas supply, a revised draft decision on the transparency of intergovernmental agreements (IGA) between EU member states and third countries in the energy arena (see EUROPE 11476), a strategy for LNG and gas storage (see EUROPE 11484), as well as a strategy for heating and cooling. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)