The European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on Thursday 9 February adopted its negotiating position on the gas package - a directive (62 votes in favour, 2 against, 7 abstentions), a regulation (54 votes in favour, 17 against, 1 abstention) - aimed at facilitating the uptake of renewable or low-carbon gases, such as biomethane and hydrogen.
In their amendments to the directive, MEPs confirm the need for an integrated European hydrogen market, with the creation of dedicated corridors, identified in the EU REPowerEU strategy, and the provision of sufficient cross-border capacity to allow hydrogen to circulate freely in the EU.
“In contrast to the Commission’s proposal, the European Parliament is giving assurance for investments in hydrogen infrastructure based on the existing natural gas network, instead of imposing investment restrictions” said Jens Geier (S&D, German), rapporteur on the proposed directive, in a statement. He welcomed the willingness of MEPs to ban disconnections for vulnerable consumers in winter.
The future directive will create a certification scheme for low-carbon gases. It will allow Member States to decide to end long term unabated fossil natural gas contracts before the end of 2049, whereas the Commission’s original proposal simply mentioned this date as the final cut-off date.
See the compromise amendments to the directive: https://aeur.eu/f/5av
On the proposed regulation, MEPs call on Member States to collectively ensure that by the end of 2030 at least 35bn m3 of sustainable biomethane is produced annually in the EU to replace 20% of Russian gas imports in the gas mix.
Taking up a compromise amendment by the EPP, S&D and ECR groups (see EUROPE 13109/6), MEPs propose that the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas should bring together the hydrogen system operators in a single body, ENTSOG&H, which would be responsible for the 10-year plan for the development of gas and hydrogen networks in the EU.
“We want to boost the development of biomethane and create incentives for producers and consumers to switch to green and low-carbon hydrogen”, said Jerzy Buzek (EPP, Poland), rapporteur on the proposed regulation. He also called for specific support for low-carbon gas production in coal regions.
Three months after the adoption of the regulation, the European Commission will present guidelines on voluntary joint gas procurement. According to MEPs, if it considers that planned gas purchases by gas groups, large consumer companies or public authorities could have a negative impact on the joint purchasing mechanism, security of supply or the functioning of the single gas market, it could adopt a recommendation to the Member State concerned that the latter should take proper account of it in order to take appropriate measures to avoid a negative impact of the kind.
See the compromise amendments to the regulation: https://aeur.eu/f/547 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)