Gas supplies – Photo EC
(BRUSSELS) – The European Parliament and EU Council informally agreed Friday on plans to facilitate the uptake of renewable and low-carbon gases, including hydrogen, on the EU’s gas market.
The regulation agreed informally by the EU institutions aims to decarbonise the gas sector and secure supply, in order to address both climate change and the disruption of gas flows caused by the Russian aggression of Ukraine.
Under the agreed text, it will be possible for Member States to restrict imports of gas from Russia and Belarus, whether via pipeline or LNG. The European Parliament has been advocating for a full ban on energy imports from Russia since April 2022, following its aggression of Ukraine.
MEPs also enshrined the joint purchasing system for gas, which will aggregate demand to prevent member states from competing against each other when bidding for gas, in particular when refilling strategic reserves. They also successfully pushed for the creation of a voluntary system to support market development for hydrogen, as a pilot project for five years.
MEPs advocated for strengthening measures to boost investment in new infrastructure for hydrogen, in particular in coal regions, to facilitate the just transition of these regions and to create incentives for producers and consumers to switch to biomethane, and green and low-carbon hydrogen.
The agreed text says that hydrogen transmission network operators will cooperate at EU level through the European Network of Network Operators for Hydrogen (ENNOH). MEPs secured a commitment from the Commission to assess, by the end of 2029, how to integrate the hydrogen, electricity and gas sectors more effectively, including the option of integrating the three European networks (ENTSOs) for hydrogen, electricity and gas.
The legislation is part of a package, together with a directive, on which an agreement with Council was found on 27 November.
The provisional agreement now requires formal adoption by both the Parliament and the Council. The new legislation will then be published in the Official Journal of the Union and enter into force 20 days later.
