The Commission may also declare a Union alert, either on its own initiative or at the request of at least three Member States
Under the proposed Council Regulation, Member States will make every effort to reduce their national gas consumption between 1 August 2022 and 31 March 2023 by at least 15% compared to its average consumptionin the same period in the previous five years. They should be based on the measures and criteria set out in reducing gas demand in Europe.
With the new legal tool, the Commission can also declare a Union alert, either on its own initiative or at the request of at least three Member States. This alert occurs when there is a substantial risk of severe gas shortages or there is extremely high demand for natural gas, leading to a significant deterioration in the natural gas supply situation, but when the market is still able to manage this disruption. The Union’s warning will allow a mandatory demand reduction target to be established.
Today’s proposal states that by the end of September 2022, Member States must update their national emergency plans, setting out the demand reduction measures they are planning, for example to implement fuel switching in industry and the electricity sector and temperature limitation in public buildings. To ensure coordination, the Commission and relevant stakeholders should be consulted before new demand reduction measures are introduced.
National authorities will be responsible for monitoring the implementation of demand reduction measures in their territory and will report to the Commission on the achieved reduction every two months, no later than the 15th of the following month.
The Commission, assisted by the Gas Coordination Group (consisting of the Commission, representatives of the Member States as well as the European Network of Gas Transmission System Operators, ENTSO-G), will closely monitor and enforce these reductions, including by calling for additional measures to achieve the mandatory reduction in case the submitted national plans are not considered sufficient or a Member State invokes solidarity provisions. In case of requests for solidarity supplies, the Commission will also require Member States to demonstrate that all appropriate gas demand reduction measures have been implemented domestically.
The Council regulation should apply for a period of two years from its entry into force, but a review is foreseen in view of the general situation of the EU’s natural gas supply by August 2023 at the latest.
RES-EMP
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