As the European Union faces a reduced gas supply from Russia, negotiators from the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament reached a compromise on the proposed regulation to contribute to the EU’s energy security by guaranteeing a certain level of gas reserves before the winter, at the end of the second session of interinstitutional negotiations ('trilogues’) on Thursday 19 May.
“This is another unprecedented achievement considering the tight schedule, due to the Russian war in Ukraine. What is at stake here is securing gas supplies for next winter for all Europeans”, said the Parliament’s chief negotiator on this issue, Jerzy Buzek (EPP, Poland).
The provisional agreement maintains the target set by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12917/7). Underground gas storage facilities in Member States’ territories must be filled to at least 80% of their capacity by the winter of 2022/2023 and to 90% by the following winter periods.
Initially advocating a target of 90% already this year (see EUROPE 12948/10), the Parliament secured the addition of a recital stating that Member States will collectively strive to achieve having underground gas reserves filled to 85% capacity in the EU by 2022.
In order to avoid a disproportionate impact on certain Member States with significant storage capacity such as Austria, Latvia, Hungary and Slovakia, the filling obligation will be limited to a volume of 35% of the annual gas consumption of the Member States over the last 5 years, as requested by the EU Council (see EUROPE 12950/11).
The provisional agreement also states that Member States could partially meet the 90% target by counting stocks of liquefied natural gas (LNG) or alternative fuels stored in the facilities, thus including two EU Council proposals.
At the request of the Parliament, common purchases of gas is also added to the list of measures that States can take to meet their filling targets, as is a reference to the energy efficiency first principle.
In addition, Cyprus, Malta and Ireland will be exempted from the filling obligation as long as they are not directly interconnected with the gas system of other Member States.
Filling trajectories
While the agreement retains the idea of establishing ‘filling trajectories’ in the form of intermediate targets, the co-legislators have modified the Commission’s proposal on this point.
For the year 2022, the trajectories will be set by the regulation with a 5% flexibility margin. From 2023 onwards, trajectories will be proposed by Member States and established by implementing acts adopted by the Commission.
Ensuring solidarity between Member States
In order to share the financial burden of filling obligations among EU countries, Member States without underground storage facilities will have to use storage capacity corresponding to 15% of their annual gas consumption over the last 5 years. However, Member States will have the possibility of agreeing among themselves on an alternative burden-sharing mechanism.
Certifying storage management companies
The provisional agreement also sets out that Member States will have to ensure that all operators of storage systems are certified. Non-certified operators will have to relinquish ownership or control of storage facilities.
In this way, the co-legislators want to prevent a foreign company controlling gas reserves in the EU from using its reserves as leverage against the Union. This is a manoeuvre used by the Russian gas giant Gazprom, according to the Commission.
Member States will have 150 days after the entry into force of the regulation to certify priority installations - those above 3.5 TWh and which were recently filled to an average level of less than 30% - and 18 months to certify other installations.
In order to satisfy the Parliament (which wanted to reduce these deadlines), the co-legislators nevertheless added a provision stipulating that the regulatory authorities should endeavour to publish a draft decision before 1 November 2022 for priority installations.
Temporary obligations
Finally, the co-legislators agreed that the filling obligations will expire on 31 December 2025. “We cannot risk prolonging our addiction to fossil fuels”, said Marie Toussaint (France), Parliament’s Greens/EFA negotiator.
However, the certification obligations will continue beyond this date.
The provisional agreement still needs to be adopted by the Parliament (with an ITRE vote on 2 June) and by the Member States before it enters into force. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)