At their plenary session in Brussels on Wednesday 11 April, MEPs approved provisional Interinstitutional Agreements on the gas package (see EUROPE 13334/14), comprising a directive (425 votes in favour, 64 against and 100 abstentions) and a regulation (477 votes in favour, 90 against and 54 abstentions).
In a debate preceding the vote, the rapporteur on the regulation, Jerzy Buzek (EPP, Poland), welcomed the fact that after two years of work, the gas package had given a “green light” to hydrogen and biomethane, and introduced the possibility for Member States to limit gas imports from Russia and Belarus. He particularly emphasised the importance of protecting against energy threats from the Kremlin.
“We will have no Energy Union without a defence. And we must have energy resources to be able to defend ourselves“, he declared.
Faced with criticism from environmentalists that the package offers a way out for gas lobbies by promoting fossil hydrogen, the directive’s rapporteur, Jens Geier (S&D, Germany), was keen to explain that the adopted texts were aimed precisely at transforming the current energy market into one based mainly on two sources: green electricity and renewable and low-carbon gases.
The regulation also introduces a common structural gas purchasing system and a pilot project to support the EU hydrogen market for five years.
The EU Council must now formally adopt the two texts before they can be published in the EU’s Official Journal.
To see the adopted texts: https://aeur.eu/f/bqd (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)