Brussels, 15/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - Monday's Energy Council reached unanimous political agreement on the Presidency's text on the proposed directive to ensure the security of gas supply to the EU. Council in fact denuded the proposal of its substance by rejecting all the provisions aiming for greater Community management of gas stocks of the Member States and all obligations on the States in terms of security of gas supply. It also removed all the prerogatives the European Commission had granted itself (especially in case of severe interruption to supply) and changed the legal basis of the proposal, meaning that article 100 will be applied (Council deciding alone by a majority of votes) rather than article 98 (co-decisions and majority of votes in Council). After this vote, the Commissioner in charge of energy issues, Loyola de Palacio, made a statement indicating that given the European Parliament's position (which has already returned its first reading on the proposal on 23 September, and will pronounce itself on the changed legal basis), she will be able to "take measures", but did not say which.
The text approved provides that: - the objective of the proposal will be to "guarantee an adequate level of security in supply of gas" and no longer "to guarantee the smooth running of the internal gas market, preserving the security of supply"; - the only obligation for the Member States will be to "make sure" that gas supply to households is guaranteed at least in certain situations (partial interruption to supply for a certain period, extremely low temperatures, particularly high levels of demand due to extremely cold conditions. The States are free to choose the means and instruments to reach the security of supply standards. For purely indicative reasons, the proposal includes a list of possible instruments. Furthermore, the Member States will no longer be obliged to adopt regular reports setting national indicative objectives for the contribution that may be made by storage to the security of supply, and this will be done solely on a voluntary basis; - in case of crisis, a response mechanism provides firstly of the intervention of industry, then of the Member States and only thereafter, for the possible involvement of the Commission, within a strict framework. The Commission will only be able to make recommendations with the co-ordination group for gas, which is created by the proposal, and only if national measure prove inadequate (in its initial proposal, the Commission envisaged the possibility of making recommendations as soon as the crisis was notified, such as making gas stocks available).
As early as May's Energy Council, the Member States had nailed their colours to the mast: there is no question of centralising management of the EU's energy stocks. Both proposed directives (for oil and gas) paid the price of this in Council and Parliament. At first reading, the EP rejected the proposal on oil stocks and totally changed the one on gas stocks. There was but poor consolation for the Commission: there will in future be a legislative framework, although extremely limited, and the creation of a co-ordination group for gas (like the existing one for oil), which will get national experts round the same table.