At the end of the meeting of Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) on Wednesday 8 October, a majority of countries backed the latest compromise proposal on the REPowerEU regulation, aimed at banning all imports of Russian gas into the EU by the end of 2027 (see EUROPE 13724/6).
The objective of the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU is to reach an agreement (general approach) between European energy ministers on 20 October in Luxembourg, before starting negotiations with the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13723/1). The two institutions have set a target of reaching a final agreement by the end of the year.
Only Hungary and Slovakia have been openly opposed to the text from the outset. For the rest, most Member States, including Belgium, indicated at the ambassadorial meeting that they could support the text as it stands, without further amendment.
However, some countries, in particular Spain and France, still have concerns or reservations about the legal basis for terminating Russian gas supply contracts (see EUROPE 13660/4) and about the ex-ante authorisation procedure for importing gas into the EU and the administrative burden this entails (see EUROPE 13718/1).
According to our information, the Danish Presidency and the European Commission claim that, under the latest version, the administrative burden is reduced as much as possible, since exporting countries meeting certain conditions – such as the application of restrictive measures against Russia – are not required to fulfil the requirements of this authorisation system.
According to two sources, these exempted countries already account for 92% of EU gas imports. For the rest, the customs authorities must carry out a check within five days. Some say that this period is too short, and that there is a risk of circumvention. Another option would be to set up a system of ex-post verification with possible sanctions, but it is not certain that this will be introduced.
Certain questions also concerned the legal robustness of the regulation, which will have to be adopted by qualified majority, in parallel with the proposal for the 19th sanctions package presented on 19 September (see EUROPE 13713/1). This package, which must be adopted unanimously, includes a ban on imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) by the end of 2026, a year before the draft regulation. According to the EU Council’s legal department, which was present at the ambassadors' meeting, the regulation would be sufficiently robust and could coexist with the new sanctions package, three sources said.
At the time of writing, the Danish Presidency had not yet decided to schedule a further discussion between ambassadors at the next Coreper meeting on 15 October. A new text could land on the ministers’ table on 20 October, with a few minor changes. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)