In response to the global energy market disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU adopted the REPowerEU Plan in 2022 to save energy, produce clean energy and diversify its energy supplies. The plan also aims to increase Europe’s strategic resilience and make it less dependent on Russian gas imports.
At the request of the European Council and in line with REPowerEU, the Commission launched the EU Energy Platform in April 2022.
Objectives
The EU Energy Platform has 3 objectives
- demand aggregation and joint purchasing of gas
- most efficient use of existing infrastructure
- international outreach
It aims at coordinating EU action on global markets to prevent EU countries from outbidding each other, whilst leveraging our political and market weight to effectively diversify supplies, introduce direct competition between the world’s largest suppliers and achieve better conditions for all EU consumers. It covers a range of actions regarding natural gas and liquified natural gas (LNG), and in the future hydrogen, to support the EU’s security of supply and access to affordable energy, including international outreach, demand aggregation, and the efficient use of EU gas infrastructures.
To date, the EU Energy Platform has played a key role in diversifying supplies, increasing the efficiency of infrastructure use, and negotiating with reliable international partners.
Exporting partner countries
In 2022, the EU Energy Platform was key to the EU’s diversification efforts, facilitating the signature of Memoranda of Understanding with main gas exporting partner countries, such as the U.S., Azerbaijan, Egypt and Norway, and enhancing international outreach to support the REPowerEU Plan.
In 2023, the focus was put on organising demand aggregation and joint purchasing of gas for gas storage ahead of winter 2023-2024. In a record time, and thanks to the close cooperation between the Commission, EU countries and the industry, the Commission was able to put in place an instrument that reinforced security of supply and took into account the needs of market operators in the EU.
The EU Energy Platform, including its AggregateEU mechanism, plays a key role in pooling gas demand, coordinating infrastructure use, negotiating with international partners and preparing for joint gas and hydrogen purchases.
Governance
To set up the joint purchasing mechanism, EU countries and industrial players from the EU and the Energy Community have been gathering forces in different fora to provide their expertise and advice to the Commission.
They have been doing so through the EU Energy Platform ad hoc Steering Board, and an Industry Advisory Group.
The ad hoc Steering Board consists of representatives of the Commission, all EU countries and representatives of the Energy Community Contracting Parties. They will help to assess whether or not gas purchases strengthen security of supply and respect the principle of solidarity. It was established on 13 January 2023 and its first meeting took place on 16 January, chaired by Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič. The second meeting took place on 2 March 2023 and in the press remarks that followed the meeting, Vice-President Šefčovič took stock of the progress made with the EU Energy Platform and presented the next steps.
The Industry Advisory Group (IAG) is an informal expert group made up of 27 EU companies and 11 observers with experience in buying gas on global markets. It brings to the table non-binding advice and an industrial perspective on demand aggregation and joint purchasing. The group aims at providing
- feedback and comments on options issued by the Commission for natural gas, LNG (and, in the future, hydrogen) demand aggregation and joint purchasing
- insights and advice on how to ensure that the EU’s goal to reduce its dependency on gas supplies from Russia can be achieved in line with the timeline provided by the REPowerEU Communication from 8 March, with a particular focus on the diversification of gas supply
- information to support outreach activities
- other input and advice relevant for the delivery of the RePowerEU objectives, within the remit of the missions of the EU Energy Platform
The members of the group were confirmed shortly after the end of a call for applications published on 6 September 2022. Their first meeting took place on 26 October 2022, and since then it meets regularly to closely monitor the implementation of demand aggregation and joint purchasing.
A call for expression of interest to join a sub-group of the Industry Advisory Group was published on 20 July 2023. The aim of the sub-group is to gather feedback on AggregateEU from gas-consuming industries procuring gas for their own use, and associations such as gas consumers.
For more information on the IAG, please see the Expert Registry.
- Council adopts measures: Prolongation of emergency regulations on security of supply and energy prices (22/12/2023)
- First high-level roundtable on joint gas purchasing (20/12/2022)
- Commission establishes Industry Advisory Group to support the EU Energy Platform (19/10/2022)
- Commission makes additional proposals to fight high energy prices and ensure security of supply | Factsheet (18/10/2022)
- Action Plan for the Regional Energy Platform for South-East Europe (02/06/2022)
- Launching the EU Energy Platform Task-Force (25/05/2022)
- Bulgaria sets up the first regional task-force as part of the EU energy platform (28/04/2022)
- AggregateEU
- Study: Design, development and implementation of joint purchasing options under EU energy platform
- Commission expert group portal – Industry Advisory Group (19/10/2022)
- The EU hydrogen and gas decarbonisation package, consisting of Directive (EU) 2024/1788 and Regulation (EU) 2024/1789
- REPowerEU Plan (COM/2022/230)
- Energy Community