On Wednesday 20 April, during a debate with other members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), MEP Jerzy Buzek (ECR, Poland), the leader of the European Parliament negotiating team on the proposed gas storage regulation, reiterated his wish to adopt the text presented by the Commission as soon as possible so that the European Union can be prepared for the coming winter in the event of a reduction or halt in Russian gas supplies.
In his view, the EU Parliament and Council should start inter-institutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) on this dossier as soon as possible in order to reach a provisional agreement quickly and then approve it in the ITRE Committee in June.
While several MEPs have raised questions about how to ensure solidarity between Member States with and without storage capacity, or the risk of stranded assets, Buzek said the urgent need is to ensure the EU’s energy security.
“It is impossible to answer all your questions now. (...) We have to differentiate between short-term solutions to a situation caused by the Russian war in Ukraine, which should be addressed in the gas storage regulation, and the long-term design of our internal gas and hydrogen market, which could be addressed later in the gas and hydrogen market regulation”, he said.
Presented on 23 March, the Commission’s proposal for a regulation provides in particular for the obligation for EU countries to fill underground gas storage facilities on their territory to at least 80% of their capacity by 1 November 2022, then to 90% for the following years (see EUROPE 12928/10, 12917/7), by setting national filling trajectories.
It also includes provisions to ensure solidarity between Member States, which is still under discussion in the EU Council (see EUROPE 12932/25).
For its part, the Parliament approved the Commission’s proposal without amendment on Thursday 7 April, using the urgency procedure provided for in Article 163 of its Rules of Procedure (see EUROPE 12928/10). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)