According to Council of the EU press release on March 28, 2023, the Council reached a political agreement on a proposal to extend the member states’ voluntary 15% gas demand reduction target, for one year. The regulation maintains the possibility for the Council to trigger a ‘Union alert’ on security of supply, in which case the gas demand reduction would become mandatory.
”The EU is not completely out of the energy crisis and Russia continues to use energy as a weapon. EU member states need to stand solidary and be prepared ahead of next winter. The overall EU consumption of natural gas has dropped by 19.3% between August 2022 and January 2023. Reducing our gas demand has allowed us to fill our storages, keep prices down and secure more energy supplies. It’s important that we keep up the work and stay resilient.” Ebba Busch, Swedish Minister for energy, business and industry
The new regulation sets a voluntary target for member states to reduce their natural gas consumption by 15% between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, compared to their average consumption in the period between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2022. Member states can choose the measures by which they want to reach the target.
In addition, member states agreed to modified reporting rules. Member states will keep reporting data on the savings achieved, at least every two months, with the possibility of submitting the reports earlier. If a Union alert is declared, they would report the data every month. Member states may, if they wish so, report the breakdown of energy consumption per sector.
The Council added a new provision to address a specific issue of an increased consumption of gas in a member state due to a coal-to-gas switch used for district heating, in determining the reference gas consumption.
The flexibilities foreseen for EU countries to meet the voluntary reduction target remain unchanged.
Background
The Commission presented a proposal on 20 March 2023, under article 122 of the Treaty on the functioning of the EU, foreseen for emergency situations.
The new regulation is an exceptional and extraordinary measure, valid for a limited time.
The Council will now aim to formally adopt the regulation by written procedure. It will then be published in the EU’s Official Journal and enter into force on 1 April 2023.
