Status: 03/22/2022 08:58 a.m
The dependence of EU countries on Russian gas threatens supplies next winter. In order to create security for industry and consumers, the EU Commission wants to ensure full gas storage with specific requirements.
By the start of the forthcoming heating period in autumn, the gas storage facilities in the EU countries should have reached certain filling levels. This is what the EU Commission is calling for, according to a draft available to the dpa news agency.
Reduce dependency on Russia
Since mid-February, even before Russia attacked Ukraine, the Commission had been urging EU states to fill up their gas storage facilities as much as possible by winter 2022/23. The EU’s gas supply is heavily dependent on Russian supplies. Around 40 percent of gas imports come from the Russian company Gazprom. The group itself also operates gas storage facilities in the EU. At the beginning of winter, these were already below average last autumn.
According to the dpa report, the plans in the EU Commission’s draft have now become concrete. According to this, the member states should ensure that their gas storage facilities are at least 90 percent full by November 1st each year. In addition, according to the information, intermediate statuses are to be determined, which are to be monitored by the Commission.
According to earlier statements by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the specification for gas storage is not just about security of supply. “Less dependence on Russian gas also means less money for the Kremlin’s war chest,” von der Leyen said in early March.
Licenses for operators of gas storage facilities
The proposed law is expected to be officially presented tomorrow. “Since there can be interruptions in the supply of pipeline gas at any time, measures must be taken to ensure that the Union storage tanks are full in order to ensure the supply for the winter of 2022/2023,” says the draft. In the future, EU countries are to have an influence on the operators of gas storage facilities through mandatory licensing. This is to ensure that these do not endanger the energy supply in an EU country. Gazprom also operates several gas storage facilities in Germany. The Russian state-owned company was accused of intentionally not filling its storage tanks sufficiently and thus of having manipulated gas prices.
At the same time, the Commission is proposing to abolish certain fees for feeding in and taking off the storage facilities in order to create market incentives for this. Since not all EU countries have gas storage facilities, there should also be a mechanism for sharing the burden so that everyone can benefit from the higher levels, according to the draft. After the official proposal has been presented, the law has to be negotiated and approved by the European Parliament and the countries.