The Member States’ ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper) reached agreement on Wednesday 11 May on the proposed Regulation to ensure sufficient gas reserves in the EU in the event of supply disruptions such as a halt in Russian deliveries.
According to our information, the meeting did not result in any significant changes to the last draft compromise tabled by the French Presidency of the EU Council (see EUROPE 12947/4).
Like the Commission’s original proposal (see EUROPE 12917/7), the French document includes an obligation for Member States to ensure that underground gas storage facilities on their territory are filled to at least 80% of their capacity by 1 November 2022 and 90% by 1 November of subsequent years.
However, it specifies that this obligation would concern, for each Member State, the storage units present on their territory and directly connected to their respective market area.
This obligation could not exceed 35% of their respective annual consumption, calculated as an average over the last 5 years.
The draft compromise also includes the possibility to count liquefied natural gas (LNG) stocks towards the filling target, under certain conditions.
According to our information, the ambassadors have agreed to add a provision to this possibility, as a transitional measure, for those Member States without underground storage facilities, but which have underground storage facilities under development on the latest list of EU ‘projects of common interest’ (PCIs).
Thus, if Member States in this scenario can prove that the facilities have been implemented on time, the filling obligation could be partially fulfilled by taking into account the LNG stocks in the existing floating storage units, until the underground storage facilities are in operation.
Furthermore, for Member States with storage capacity directly connected to a third country, the volumes of gas stored and supplied on behalf of these third countries would be excluded from their filling obligation, if the average volume supplied (calculated over the reference period 2016-2021) was more than 15 TWh per year during the gas de-storage period (October - April).
Burden sharing
With regard to the burden-sharing mechanism, the mandate agreed by the Ambassadors foresees that Member States without storage facilities require their national market players to build up stocks in EU countries with storage facilities equal to 15% of their respective annual consumption, averaged over the last 5 years.
These stocks would contribute to the filling target set for Member States with storage capacities.
In addition, this storage obligation could be fulfilled by the storage of alternative fuels, when justified by exceptional technical limitations and provided that the equivalence of this alternative is demonstrated.
Sunset clause
In order to signify the temporary nature of the Regulation, the mandate introduces a sunset clause according to which the Regulation should expire on 31 December 2026 at the latest.
It also provides for a derogation for Cyprus, Malta and Ireland as long as they are not directly interconnected to the gas system of other Member States.
In the European Parliament, discussions between the different political groups have made good progress this week. According to our information, Parliament’s negotiators will meet one last time on Monday 16 May, just before the first negotiation session with the EU Council (‘trilogue’), scheduled for around 5pm. EUROPE will continue to follow this story. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)