The European Parliament’s negotiators for the proposed regulation on gas storage will meet on Tuesday 10 May at 9 am with the aim of finalising the Parliament’s position on the dossier.
Presented by the European Commission on 23 March in order to prepare the EU for possible disruptions to its gas supply as a result of the war in Ukraine, the proposed regulation would require EU countries to ensure that underground gas storage facilities on their territory are filled to at least 80% of their capacity by 1 November 2022, and then to 90% by 1 November of subsequent years, through filling trajectories (see EUROPE 12917/7).
It is therefore a priority issue for the EU institutions.
Negotiations in the Parliament are nevertheless progressing at a slower pace than in the EU Council (see EUROPE 12947/5), despite the activation of the urgency procedure (see EUROPE 12928/10), due to the different positions of the political groups in the Parliament.
“Instead of staying close to the European Commission’s text, the political groups are adding a lot of issues as if it were a Christmas tree where you can put everything”, a parliamentary source told EUROPE.
However, a majority of negotiators reportedly agree to defend a stock filling target of 90%, starting this year.
In addition, they reportedly unanimously support a strengthening of the European Commission’s proposal on the certification of companies that own a storage system operator. The aim is to ensure that there are no more stocks of Russian gas in the Member States.
However, they are reportedly divided on the inclusion of a clause making the regulation null and void as soon as the new gas legislative package (see EUROPE 12854/11) enters into force, or within 2 years, if the adoption of this package takes too long (‘sunset clause’).
The Greens/EFA are also reportedly trying to convince the other groups to take into account Member States’ gas consumption in their filling target, not just their storage capacity. On this point, the Parliament is thus reportedly aligning itself with the position emerging in the EU Council (see EUROPE 12947/5).
An additional meeting of the Parliament’s negotiators could be held between 10 and 16 May, the date scheduled for the start of the interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogue’).
For their part, the Member States are expected to reach a political agreement (‘general approach’) on Wednesday 11 May at a meeting of their ambassadors to the EU (‘Coreper’).
According to our sources, the French Presidency of the EU Council would like to reach a provisional agreement with the Parliament at the first trilogue. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)