The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) declared Nord Stream 2 AG’s appeal against EU Directive 2019/692 amending Directive (2009/73) on the internal market in natural gas partially admissible on Tuesday 12 July, in a judgment that goes against the previous conclusions of the General Court of the EU (Case C-348/20 P).
One of the requirements of Directive 2019/692 at the source of the dispute is the separation of gas transmission structures from production and supply structures, while providing for non-discriminatory third party access to EU transmission networks (see EUROPE 12193/16).
On 20 May 2020, the European General Court ruled in a case brought by Nord Stream 2 AG - a Swiss subsidiary of the Russian gas giant Gazprom responsible for the planning, construction and operation of the ‘Nord Stream 2’ pipeline - that the company could not apply for annulment of the directive, on the grounds that the company is not directly affected by it (see EUROPE 12491/23).
In today’s judgment, the CJEU considers, on the contrary, that the amending directive “directly affects the legal position of Nord Stream 2 AG”.
By extending the scope of the Gas Directive (2009/73) to interconnectors between Member States and third countries, such as the interconnector which Nord Stream 2 AG intends to operate, the amending directive “has the effect of making the operation of that interconnector subject to the rules laid down by that directive”, the Court ruled.
It therefore annulled the order of the General Court and referred the case back to it so that it could rule on the merits of the action, taking into account its decision.
See the judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/2lf (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)