Updates
in the legal and institutional framework in the Energy Community regard measures
to safeguard security of gas supply operate
08
Apr 2015
Revised security of gas supply regulation covering the
Energy Community is best guarantee for Europe’s security of gas supply
I. On 08 Apr 2015 the Secretariat submitted its views
to the European Commission’s public consultation on the revision of Regulation
(EU) no 994/2010 on measures to safeguard the security of gas supply. The
Regulation is currently not in force in the Energy Community Contracting
Parties. Yet, EU Member States and the Energy Community Contacting Parties
share the same gas infrastructures and thus the same security of supply risks.
These risks can only be mitigated effectively under a common institutional and
regulatory framework. The revised rules on the security of gas supply should be
applied equally in the EU Member States as well as the Energy Community
Contracting Parties.
The Energy Community Ministerial Council and other
institutional bodies have repeatedly expressed support for increasing the level
of security of gas supply in the Energy Community and for the incorporation of
the Regulation in the Energy Community acquis. The most efficient approach for
the adoption of the revised regulation is to apply Title IV of the Energy
Community Treaty, allowing for the designing of true pan-European energy
governance for a Single European Energy Market.
II.
Background
Enhancing security of supply is one of the main
objectives of the Treaty establishing the Energy Community (hereafter ‘Treaty’).
One of the Energy Community tasks is to “organize the relations between the
Parties and create a legal and economic framework …in order to enhance the
security of supply of the single regulatory space by providing a stable
investment climate in which connections to Caspian, North Africa and Middle
East gas reserves can be developed, and indigenous sources of energy such as
natural gas […] can be exploited”.
Article 29 of the Treaty calls for adopting security
of supply statements which are communicated to the Secretariat and updated
every two years. The Secretariat adopted Guidelines for drafting such
statements. Safeguards measures are directly established in the Treaty within
the Title III, Chapter VII (articles 36-39) as well as under Title IV, Chapter
IV (mutual assistance in the event of disruption, articles 44-46).
Set aside the provisions stemming directly from the
Treaty, the incumbent security of supply acquis consists of Directive
2004/67/EC concerning measures to safeguard security of natural gas supply,
together with general provisions on security of supply contained in the Third
Energy Package, binding in the Energy Community since 1 January 2015. The
Security of Supply Coordination Group was established by the Energy Community
Ministerial Council envisaged as a platform where the security of supply
measures, taken at national levels, should be coordinated at a regional level.
The Group was made de facto functional in 2012 and encloses a Subgroup related
for gas only which meets twice a year.
The Commission Decision included the Secretariat as a
full pledged member of the EU Gas Coordination Group established by Regulation
994/2010. The Contracting Parties have implemented the relevant provisions of
the Directive 2004/67/EC within their legal framework to an adequate level.
They were assisted by the Secretariat and guided in practical terms in
fulfilling this task.
The security of supply acquis was predominantly
transposed within the primary legislation. Some Contracting Parties adopted the
secondary acts – emergency or preventive plans, whereas the relevant gas market
participants developed appropriate operational acts. All the Contracting
Parties have adopted the Security of Supply Statements, and most of them update
them regularly, following the Guidelines drafted by the Secretariat, to a
certain extent.
III.
Outlook for the Energy Community
The need to increase the level of the security of gas
supply in the Energy Community and consequently in Europe has been repeatedly
pointed out since 2011 at the Energy Community institutional meetings (for
example, the conclusions of the Ministerial Council 2011, Permanent High Level
Group and Gas Fora 2011-2014 meetings). The Gas Subgroup discussed the topic in
its meetings and recommended to the Contracting Parties to implement certain
elements of the Regulation.
In this context, a study on implementation of the
Regulation in the Energy Community was a point of departure for our
considerations. The Secretariat strongly believes that security of gas supply
for Europe could not be achieved if the Energy Community is left out from the
EU legislative framework, since the EU Member States and the Contracting
Parties share the same infrastructures which bring gas from the same source of
supply. Those interconnections are located on the same supply routes: one
supply route is Ukraine-Slovakia, the second one Ukraine-Hungary-Serbia-Bosnia
and Herzegovina, and the third one Ukraine-Moldova-Romania-Bulgaria with
branches to former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece and Turkey.
Thus, Member States and the Contracting Parties share
the same risks of security of gas supply and could mitigate such risks only
under the common institutional and regulatory framework. Moreover, the other
supply routes will also emerge, such as the Southern Corridor which would
interlink Greece and Italy with Albania. The Contracting Parties and Member
States security of gas supply is interdependent, what has been recognised in
the recently performed gas stress test as an axiomatic fact when the EC invited
the Energy Community to join this exercise.
Whilst the Stress Test Communication clearly shows
that cooperation between the Member States and the Contracting Parties is vital
for security of supply of gas, it also demonstrates that the Contracting
Parties would need a more efficient tool to accrue to the EU standards in
security of supply and also to assist the EU to deliver the very same standards
the Regulation is requesting. This is even truer as the Paper itself confirms
that the application of Regulation 994/2010 indicates clear improvements in the
EU security of supply situation since its adoption.
The Secretariat trusts that the revised Regulation
introduced both in the EU and in the Energy Community Contracting Parties and
applied diligently on both sides of interface between a Member State and a
Contracting Party would bring much higher level of security of gas supply for
the whole Europe. In this context, perhaps the most efficient approach to be
taken is to apply earlier mentioned Title IV of the current Energy Community
Treaty, allowing for designing true pan-European energy governance for a Single
European Energy Market, a measure which has not been used so far.