Following the leak of a European Commission working document on Thursday 28 May recommending that Member States should not apply the penalties provided for in the Methane Regulation (2024/1787) in the event of importers failing to comply before 2030 (see EUROPE 13877/9), 18 organisations, including Eurogas and Cefic, signed a joint statement addressed to the Council of the European Union on Thursday 11 June.
The Regulation lays down reporting (MRV) obligations for methane emissions from imports into the EU from 1 January 2027, as well as verification of their equivalence with European standards. The recommendation calling for penalties not to be applied has not, for the time being, been formally issued.
This is a major problem, according to industry, which is asking Member States for “legal certainty” and to encourage the Commission to draw up “a revised implementation timetable”.
Industry calls for clarity. According to Eurogas Secretary General Andreas Guth, industry has been calling for years for greater clarity on the European standards applicable to mandatory reporting and on tools to prove compliance.
“The European Commission is considering recommending that EU Member States should not penalise companies that do not comply with the rules, but that is not enough”, he says. “Importers cannot be expected knowingly and deliberately to breach applicable European law, even if they do not risk financial penalties.”
To date, Denmark is the only Member State to have implemented this Regulation by drawing up a model including penalties.
Read the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/mby (Original version in French by Nadège Delépine)