The Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Parliament negotiators headed by their rapporteur, the chairperson of Parliament's energy committee, Jerzy Buzek (EPP, Poland), obtained a principled agreement on Wednesday evening 26 April on the revised draft regulation for the security of gas supplies. This agreement seeks to prevent future gas crises.
The aim of these new rules is to minimise the impact of gas supply cuts and improve the cooperation between member states through a common and co-ordinated approach for national supply security measures.
For the first time, the solidarity principle will apply: an EU member state confronted by imminent gas shortage will be able to alert the other member states of an imminent crises involving supply and trigger cross-border assistance in an effort to rectify the problem.
Mr Buzek explained, “This text will help enhance our security and resistance to external upsets and abusive use of energy supplies as a political weapon. It will provide member states with the capacity to assist one another in the event of an emergency, as well as take joint action to prevent any supply crises”.
He added that, “the main Parliament objective was to ensure that our citizens are never deprived of gas supplies. Through the solidarity mechanism, member states are obliged to help one another in the event of a threat to gas supplies that can affect the most vulnerable consumers – households, hospitals and social services”.
Regional cooperation and crisis thresholds. The revised text seeks to enhance regional cooperation and coordination on the basis of four regional groups of member states set up to tackle joint risks. The countries in each group will carry out regional risk assessments and prepare compulsory regional preventive action plans and emergency plans.
Member states will be able to declare energy supply crisis thresholds by informing the European Commission and appropriate authorities: early warning, alert and emergency.
Solidarity mechanism. The revised text introduces a mandatory solidarity principle in scenarios of extreme crisis: in the event of serious gas crisis, neighbouring member states will help to ensure gas supplies to households and essential social services.
The solidarity mechanism will be activated when a member state indicates that cross-border intervention is necessary to overcome a profound crisis. This measure is only possible if there is a risk to the security or health of consumers who are “protected” under the solidarity mechanism, for example: a household, urban heating facility or essential social services.
Gas supplies for the requesting member state will then become a priority for the member states providing assistance and identifying the country within the same “risk group”. Aid to another member state can only be activated as a measure of last resort. The requesting member state will have to provide fair compensation to the country that has ensured its supply.
Transparency of contracts. Long-term gas contracts that provide at least 28% of annual gas consumption for a member state will have to be notified to the appropriate authority. The Council called for a 40% threshold, wheras Parliament called for a threshold of 20%.
Contact details will only be provided for trade agreements. Existing contracts will be notified 12 months after the entry into force of the regulation. If the appropriate authority has doubts about the impact of a given contract on the security of gas supply in the member state and region, it will have to provide the Commission with relevant information in this regard.
In key gas supply contracts that could compromise the security of supply for a member state, region or the EU as a whole, the Commission will be able to request contract details from the company in question.
European-wide scope. The new text introduces specific obligations on EU member states with regard to the Energy Community (which, in addition to the EU, includes Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, Moldova and Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Norway and Turkey and have observer status) and provides the Commission with powers to coordinate the application of the legal framework between the EU and the Energy Community.
The principled agreement put together on Wednesday evening still needs to be formally adopted by the Council and Parliament before its entry into force 20 days after its publication in the EU Official Journal.
The Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete explained, “The new rules are built upon solidarity and cooperation among the Member States. While the national conditions and specificities of the Member States are an important building block, the EU-wide framework of regional groups makes coordinated actions possible. Thus, Europe becomes better equipped to avoid and cope with eventual crises”.
Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister of Malta, Konrad Mizzi, said, "This legislation will be a major contribution towards our energy security. It will help reduce our dependency on others for fuel supplies and help us to tackle gas supply crises more quickly and efficiently. It will also help to enhance confidence and solidarity within the EU and with our Energy Community partners”.
The revised text on gas supply security is, together with the revised mechanism on the transparency of intergovernmental energy agreements (a text that has already been ratified), one of the two flagship proposals in the gas security package put on the table by the Commission in February 2016 (see EUROPE 11491). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)