The third attempt at a compromise by the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU, dated 18 July and reviewed by Agence Europe, includes only slight changes to the previous version (see EUROPE 13680/17), but does clarify the derogation granted to landlocked countries.
This derogation allows landlocked Hungary and Slovakia to receive Russian gas by pipeline until 1 January 2028, which means that the short-term contracts needed to “execute a long-term delivery contract for the import of natural gas by pipeline” will still be permitted until that date.
Under the European Commission's initial proposal (see EUROPE 13661/5), short-term ‘spot contracts’ will be banned from 17 June 2026, while new contracts (concluded after 17 June 2025) will be banned from 1 January 2026. However, the Danish Presidency has left the latter date in square brackets in the text (see EUROPE 13680/17).
The new version specifies that these contracts sealed by landlocked countries target imported gas “for which delivery at the initial delivery point at an EU border with a third country can no longer be made”.
Nor can these contracts be amended after 17 June 2025, unless the amendment is limited to reducing the contractual quantities, “changing the national delivery point or is required by legal or arbitration proceedings”.
Another point concerns the modification of the definition of ‘importer’ to include “affiliated companies” of a natural or legal person.
Several other definitions have been added, such as ‘delivery point’, this being the “physical or virtual location specified in a gas supply contract at which natural gas is to be delivered by a seller and received by a buyer”.
The text also defines the terms ‘round-up quantities’, ‘fractional quantities’ and ‘upward quantities’, the latter being volumes of natural gas to be optionally added to the annual contracted quantity based on supply contracts “at the discretion of a contracting party”. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)