Following the adoption of their respective positions by the Council of the EU on 11 April and the European Parliament on 8 May, the co-legislators met on the evening of Tuesday 13 May for a first session of inter-institutional negotiations on the extension and amendment of the gas storage regulation (see EUROPE 13620/5, 13636/12).
Compared with the European Commission’s initial proposal to extend the validity of the regulation until the end of 2027, the positions adopted by Parliament and the Council include more flexibility to achieve the initial annual target of 90% of tanks filled by 1 November.
As a result, their positions converge on a new annual deadline that would fall “at any time between 1 October and 1 December”.
However, they differ slightly on how much flexibility to allow: Parliament wants an annual filling target of 83% (with possible deviations of 4%, and a further 4% in the event of persistent unfavourable market conditions), while the Council is retaining the annual target of 90% (with possible deviations of 10% in the event of unfavourable conditions, and a further 5% under certain conditions).
This first session merely served to reiterate positions, and will be followed by further exchanges, scheduled to take place on 3 and 24 June.
The Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU had previously mentioned its intention to reach an agreement with Parliament before the end of its term of office on 30 June, so that the new provisions of the renewed regulation could be applied as early as this year. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)