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Energy

Security of gas supply

About one-quarter of all energy used in the EU comes from natural gas. Maintaining a secure supply is therefore essential to ensuring energy security for EU citizens and businesses.

Gas supply disruptions may result from technical or human failures, natural disasters, cyber-attacks and other emerging risks or geopolitical disputes. Many EU countries import nearly all their supplies and some are also heavily reliant on a single source, meaning that disruptions along a single transport route can threaten the certainty of their gas supply. For example

  • 2009: a gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine affected gas supplies to a number of EU countries
  • 2017: an explosion at a major European gas hub in Baumgarten (Austria) caused neighbouring countries to issue an early warning or declare a state of energy emergency
  • 2021: the energy price spike that started in autumn triggered questions regarding the EU’s security of supply, due to the interplay between prices, lower-than-usual storage filling levels and the consistency of gas availability
  • 2022: after Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, several EU countries experienced unilateral and unjustified supply cuts from Russia

Key facts on gas

€90 billion
EU fossil fuel imports from Russia in 2019
€7 billion
EU fossil fuel imports from Russia in 2023
18%
EU gas demand reduction August 2022 - December 2023

(Source: Eurostat January 2024; ENER Chief Economist Team, 29 January 2024)

Emergency preparedness and resilience 

The Regulation on measures to safeguard the security of gas supply (EU/2017/1938) lays down the framework for EU emergency preparedness and resilience to gas disruptions. Its provisions are based on improved information exchange, regional cooperation and solidarity, covering

  • cooperation between EU countries in regional groups to assess common supply risks (through Common Risk Assessments) and to develop joint preventive and emergency measures
  • the facilitation of permanent bi-directional capacity on all cross-border interconnections between EU countries by transmission service operators, unless an exemption is granted
  • the preparation of EU-wide simulations of gas supply and infrastructure disruptions, carried out by the European Network for Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG) to provide a high-level overview of the major supply risks for the EU

In line with the Regulation on Conditions for Access to the Natural Gas Transmission Networks (EC/715/2009), ENTSOG is also required to undertake seasonal supply outlooks investigating, at the pan-European level, the security of gas supply ahead of each winter and summer period. These seasonal supply outlooks help the Commission in its monitoring work.

Reinforcement of gas storage rules

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Commission published in March 2022 a proposal for amendment of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938, including measures to deal with the market imbalances for energy and to ensure well-filled gas storage in the EU. The proposal highlighted how gas storage contributes to the security of supply by absorbing supply shocks in case of strong demand or supply disruptions. The European Parliament and the Council adopted the proposal in June 2022.

EU rules on gas storage

EU emergency gas demand measures

On 5 August 2022, the Council adopted the emergency Regulation on Coordinated Demand Reduction Measures for Gas (EU/2022/1369), introducing a voluntary reduction of natural gas demand for EU countries by 15% for winter 2022-2023, meant to complement the Regulation on gas security of supply (EU/2017/1938). The regulation was proposed by the Commission in July 2022 in response to unilateral supply cuts from Russia in the first half of 2022. It also allows the Council to trigger a ‘Union alert’ to issue mandatory gas demand reductions in emergency cases.

Along with its proposal in July 2022, the Commission published the Communication “Save gas for a safe winter” (COM/2022/360), which included a European gas demand reduction plan to prepare the EU for supply cuts. The Communication and its annex listed good practice measures to reduce demand and offered EU countries criteria to identify essential customers (for instance industries considered critical or strategic from a societal perspective, such as from the health and pharmaceutical or food sectors) which were not already protected under the Regulation on Security of Supply.

On 30 March 2023, amid persisting risks and challenges on the energy market, the Council adopted the Commission’s proposal to prolong the coordinated gas demand reduction measures for a further 12 months to help avoid security of supply issues for winter 2023-2024 and fully compensate for the permanent decrease in Russian gas. The extension of the proposal also encourages the Commission and EU countries to monitor and report the data on savings per sector every month, rather than total gas demand every 2 months.

Solidarity arrangements

Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 introduced a solidarity mechanism - only to be activated in the event of an extreme gas crisis.

Its function is to help ensure that so-called 'protected customers' like households and hospitals maintain access to gas, even in the worst crises. To do so, EU countries must ensure the necessary cross-border technical, legal and financial arrangements to make the flow of solidarity gas possible in practice.

Under the regulation, the following bilateral agreements have been signed

  • Germany, Italy and Switzerland (19 March 2024)
  • Slovenia and Croatia (14 July 2023)
  • Denmark and Sweden (8 May 2023)
  • Finland and Estonia (25 April 2022)
  • Italy and Slovenia (22 April 2022)
  • Lithuania and Latvia (10 March 2022)
  • Estonia and Latvia (4 January 2022)
  • Germany and Austria (2 December 2021)
  • Germany and Denmark (14 December 2020)

In the context of the interinstitutional negotiations for the Hydrogen & Decarbonised gas market package, following the Commission’s proposal, the European Parliament and the Council agreed to amend Regulation EU 2017/1938 by establishing default solidarity provisions to operationalise the solidarity principle in case of a crisis, where bilateral agreements are not in place. The text provisionally agreed is yet to be formally adopted by the co-legislators. 

Preventive action plans and emergency plans

The Gas Security of Supply Regulation requires preventive action and emergency plans to follow a common structure and contain the same key elements, making it easier to compare the plans of different EU countries. It also requires that the preventive and emergency plans must be updated every 4 years and include regional chapters reflecting common risks.

  • Preventive action plans include measures needed to remove or mitigate gas supply risks identified in their national and common risk assessments
  • Emergency plans cover measures to remove or mitigate the impact of a gas supply disruption

The final plans and Commission opinions are available on a dedicated page, per EU country and linguistic version.

Gas Coordination Group

The Gas Coordination Group is a standing advisory group, coordinating security of supply measures, especially during crises. The group assists the Commission on monitoring the adequacy and appropriateness of measures to be taken under the Regulation (EU) 2017/1938, as well as serving as a platform for the exchange of information on the security of gas supply between key stakeholders. In addition, the Gas Coordination Group continuously monitors the storage levels and security of supply throughout the EU and its neighbourhood. The group meets regularly to discuss these matters.

Members include national authorities, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG), the Energy Community and representatives of industry and consumer associations.

Documents

1 OCTOBER 2020
Commission decision on the revision of certain exemptions from the obligation to enable bi-directional capacity pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 concerning measures to safeguard
English
(192.14 KB - PDF)
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