EUROPE obtained, on Friday 13 May, the document on the proposed regulation on gas storage, presenting the positions of the different EU institutions in view of the interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’).
Presented on 23 March in response to the risks to EU gas supplies following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission’s proposal 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, following filling trajectories (see EUROPE 12917/7).
In the European Parliament, the negotiators want to set this target at 90% already this year and introduce an amendment according to which two or more Member States can set up a voluntary joint purchasing mechanism for gas as part of the measures to ensure security of supply.
In their view, Member States without storage facilities should also be able to use storage facilities located on the territory of the ‘Energy Community’ contracting parties, provided that the storage system operators meet the EU certification criteria.
MEPs also agreed on an amendment to exclude Russian gas from the regulation, but without specifically mentioning Russia. Member States would be prohibited from using gas “from countries subject to Union economic restrictive measures” to meet stock filling targets.
At the request of the EPP group, the Parliament’s position also adds a case to the list of situations requiring national measures to guarantee gas supply (Article 6 of Regulation 2017/1938). The agreed amendment provides for Member States to take measures to ensure their security of gas supply for a period of 6 months “in the event of disruption of a single supply source or a single LNG (liquefied natural gas) supplying country”.
The Greens/EFA secured the addition of a reference to energy efficiency. According to the amendment retained, from 2023 onwards, a Member State that is at risk of not meeting the filling target due to specific technical characteristics or legal obstacles should have the possibility to compensate for this by achieving an equivalent amount of energy savings in that year.
The Parliament’s position also changes the deviation from the gas stock filling targets at which the competent authorities would be required to take immediate action to increase the filling rate. This provision would thus be activated if the filling rate of a given Member State is more than 3.5 percentage points below the targets of the filling trajectory, as opposed to 2 percentage points in the Commission’s proposal.
In order to ensure the temporary nature of this regulation, MEPs suggest introducing a clause that would render the regulation null and void by 1 July 2024.
Prior to this date, the Commission would be responsible for assessing whether to shorten or extend the application of the regulation, based on regular monitoring of security of supply.
The negotiators also propose to strengthen the chapter on the certification of storage system operators to ensure that there are no more stocks of Russian gas in the Member States, as well as the role of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER).
For their part, the Member States agreed, on Wednesday 11 May, on a negotiating mandate that will be defended during the trilogues by the French Presidency of the EU Council (see EUROPE 12950/11).
The first trilogue will be held on Monday 16 May.
See the four-column document: https://aeur.eu/f/1mb (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)