Consultation on the review of the Intergovernmental Agreements Decision

EU and Member States' authorities, energy market participants and their associations, SMEs, energy consumers, NGOs, other relevant stakeholders and Citizens.

Results

• Industry and business federations
• Public bodies

Objective of the consultation

The Energy Union strategy adopted in February 2015 indicates that: "an important element in ensuring energy (and in particular gas) security is full compliance of agreements related to the buying of energy from third countries with EU law". The European Council in its conclusions of 19 March 2015 also called for "full compliance with EU law of all agreements related to the buying of gas from external suppliers, notably by reinforcing transparency of such agreements and compatibility with EU energy security provisions".
To achieve such compliance, an information exchange mechanism with regard to intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) between Member States and third countries in the field of energy was established by a Decision adopted by the Parliament and Council on 25 October 2012, which entered into force on 17 November 2012 (the IGA Decision). The main feature of this mechanism is that the Commission carries out compliance checks of IGAs after a Member State and a third country have concluded such agreements.
While the current system is useful for receiving information on existing IGAs and for identifying problems posed by them in terms of their compatibility with EU law, it is however not sufficient to solve such problems. In the new context of the Energy Union strategy and in an international situation where energy security is at the centre of the political debate, the Commission is therefore considering reviewing the IGA Decision.
This consultation document serves as a basis for getting stakeholders' assessment of the IGA Decision and to identify what could be improved in the mechanism it establishes in order to increase transparency of such agreements and compatibility with EU energy security provisions.

How to submit your contribution

View the consultation document

You are invited to reply to this by sending your input by e-mail to the mailbox:
ENER-IGA-DECISION-REVIEWec [dot] europa [dot] eu (ENER-IGA-DECISION-REVIEW[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
Please, submit your response to this public consultation by 22 October 2015 at the latest.
When submitting your response to the mailbox, please identify yourself with your name and E-mail address and specify if you respond as an individual or as a representative of an organisation. If you represent an organisation, please indicate the name and category of the organisation (Company/Business; Public Authority; NGO; other) as well as the registration number of the Transparency Register (if relevant).

In the interest of transparency, organisations have been invited to provide the public with relevant information about themselves by registering in the Interest Representative register and subscribing to its Code of Conduct.

View the contributions

Received contributions will be published on the Internet. In view of this publication, please indicate in your E-mail one of the following options:
Your contribution:

• Can be directly published with your personal information (I consent to publication of all information in my contribution in whole or in part including my name/the name of my organisation, and I declare that nothing within my response is unlawful or would infringe the rights of any third party in a manner that would prevent publication);
• Cannot be directly published but may be included within statistical data (I understand that my contribution will not be directly published, but that my anonymised responses may be included in published statistical data, for example, to show general trends in the response to this consultation) Note that your answers may be subject to a request for public access to documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001;
• Can be directly published provided that I/my organisation remain(s) anonymous (I consent to publication of any information in my contribution in whole or in part (which may include quotes or opinions I express) provided that this is done anonymously. I declare that nothing within my response is unlawful or would infringe the rights of any third party in a manner that would prevent publication).

For further information on the protection of personal data, please follow the link.

Contact

Responsible services: DG ENERGY - A.3: International relations & Enlargement

E-mail: ENER-IGA-DECISION-REVIEWec [dot] europa [dot] eu (ENER-IGA-DECISION-REVIEW[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

Postal address: European Commission, DG Energy - ENER.A.3, International relations & Enlargement, office 07-137, DM 24 06/95, B-1049 Brussels, Belgium