In its ruling on Wednesday 20 December in case C-226/16, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that member states cannot require natural gas suppliers to hold sufficient natural gas stocks to fulfil obligations exclusively on national territory but they can, however, widen the group of customers for which gas supply is safeguarded beyond households and SMEs (see EUROPE 11837).
The applicants – the companies ENI, ENI Gas & Power France and UPRIGAZ – applied to the French Conseil...