(2)

the following Articles are inserted: ‘Article 6a Filling targets and filling trajectories 1. Subject to paragraphs 2 to 5, the Contracting Parties shall meet the following filling targets for the aggregated capacity of all underground gas storage facilities that are located on their territory and directly interconnected to a market area in their territory by 1 November each year: (a) for 2022: 80 %; (b) from 2023: 90 %. For the purpose of complying with this paragraph, the Contracting Parties shall take into account the objective of safeguarding the security of gas supply in accordance with Article 1. 2. Notwithstanding paragraph 1 and without prejudice to the obligations of other Contracting Parties to fill the underground gas storage facilities concerned, the filling target for each Contracting Party in which the underground gas storage facilities are located shall be reduced to a volume corresponding to 35 % of the average annual gas consumption over the preceding five years for that Contracting Party. 3. Notwithstanding paragraph 1 and without prejudice to the obligations of other Contracting Parties to fill the underground gas storage facilities concerned, the filling target for each Contracting Party in which the underground gas storage facilities are located shall be reduced by the volume which was supplied to the EU Member States and third countries during the reference period 2016 to 2021 if the average volume supplied was more than 15 TWh per year during the gas storage withdrawal period (October – April). 4. <….> 5. A Contracting Party may partially meet the filling target by counting the LNG physically stored and available in its LNG facilities if both of the following conditions are met: (a) the gas system includes significant capacity of LNG storage, accounting annually for more than 4 % of the average national consumption over the preceding five years; (b) the Contracting Party has imposed an obligation on gas suppliers to store minimum volumes of gas in underground gas storage facilities and/or LNG facilities in accordance with Article 6b(1), point (a). 6. The Contracting Parties shall take the necessary measures to meet the intermediate targets or to ensure that they are met as follows: (a) for 2022 as set out in Annex Ia; and (b) from 2023: in accordance with paragraph 7. 7. For 2023 and the following years, each Contracting Party with underground gas storage facilities shall submit to the Energy Community Secretariat, by 15 September of the previous year, a draft filling trajectory with intermediary targets for February, May, July and September, including technical information, for the underground gas storage facilities on its territory and directly interconnected to its market area in an aggregated form. The filling trajectory and the intermediate targets shall be based on the average filling rate during the preceding five years. For Contracting Parties for which the filling target is reduced to 35 % of their average annual gas consumption pursuant to paragraph 2, the intermediate targets of the filling trajectory shall be reduced accordingly. Based on the technical information provided by each Contracting Party and taking into account the assessment of the Security of Supply Coordination Group, the Energy Community Secretariat shall adopt a decision setting the filling trajectory for each Contracting Party. That decision shall be adopted by 15 November of the preceding year, where necessary and including where a Contracting Party has submitted an updated draft filling trajectory. It shall be based on an assessment of the general security of gas supply situation and the development of gas demand and supply in the Energy Community and individual Contracting Parties, and set in a manner that safeguards the security of gas supply, while avoiding unnecessary burdens on Contracting Parties, gas market participants, storage system operators or customers and not unduly distorting competition between storage facilities located in neighbouring Contracting Parties and/or Member States. 8. Where, in any given year, a Contracting Party is not able to meet its filling target by 1 November due to the specific technical characteristics of one or more underground gas storage facilities within its territory, such as exceptionally low injection rates, it shall be allowed to meet it by 1 December. The Contracting Party shall inform the Energy Community Secretariat by 1 November, providing reasons for the delay. 9. The filling target shall not apply where and for as long as one or more Contracting Parties with underground gas storage facilities have declared a national emergency pursuant to Article 11. 10. The competent authority of each Contracting Party shall continuously monitor compliance with the filling trajectory and shall report regularly to the Security of Supply Coordination Group. If the filling level of a given Contracting Party is more than five percentage points below the level of the filling trajectory, the competent authority shall, without delay, take effective measures to increase it. The Contracting Parties shall inform the Energy Community Secretariat and the Security of Supply Coordination Group of the measures taken. 11. In the event of a substantial and sustained deviation by a Contracting Party from the filling trajectory, which compromises the meeting of the filling target, or in the event of a deviation from the filling target, the Energy Community Secretariat shall, after consulting the Security of Supply Coordination Group and the Contracting Party concerned, issue a recommendation to that Contracting Party or to the other Contracting Parties concerned regarding measures to be taken immediately. Where the deviation is not significantly reduced within one month of receipt of the Energy Community Secretariat’s recommendation, the Secretariat shall, after consulting the Security of Supply Coordination Group and the Contracting Party concerned, take a decision as a measure of last resort to require the Contracting Party concerned to take measures that effectively remedy the deviation, including, where appropriate, one or more of the measures provided for in Article 6b(1), or any other measure to ensure that the filling target pursuant to this Article is met. In deciding which measures to take pursuant to the second subparagraph, the Energy Community Secretariat shall take into account the specific situation of the Contracting Party concerned, such as the size of the underground gas storage facilities in relation to the domestic gas consumption, the importance of the underground gas storage facilities for the security of gas supply in the region and any existing LNG storage facilities. Any measures taken by the Energy Community Secretariat to address deviations from the filling trajectory or the filling target for 2022 shall take into account the short timeframe for the implementation of this Article at national level, which may have contributed to the deviation from the filling trajectory or the filling target for 2022. The Energy Community Secretariat shall ensure that the measures taken pursuant to this paragraph do not: (a) go beyond what is necessary to safeguard the security of gas supply; (b) place a disproportionate burden on Contracting Parties, gas market participants, storage system operators or customers. Article 6b Implementation of filling targets 1. The Contracting Parties shall take all necessary measures, including providing for financial incentives or compensation to market participants, to meet the filling targets set pursuant to Article 6a. When ensuring that the filling targets are met, the Contracting Parties shall prioritise, where possible, market-based measures. To the extent that any of the measures provided for in this Article are duties and powers of the national regulatory authority pursuant to Article 41 of Directive 2009/73/EC as adapted and adopted by Ministerial Council Decision 2011/02/MC-EnC, the national regulatory authorities shall be responsible for taking those measures. Measures taken pursuant to this paragraph may, in particular, include: (a) requiring gas suppliers to store minimum volumes of gas in storage facilities, including in underground gas storage facilities and/or LNG storage facilities, those volumes to be determined on the basis of the amount of gas supplied by gas suppliers to protected customers; (b) requiring storage system operators to tender their capacities to market participants; (c) requiring transmission system operators or entities designated by the Contracting Party to purchase and manage balancing stock exclusively for carrying out their functions as transmission system operators and, where necessary, imposing an obligation on other designated entities for the purpose of safeguarding the security of gas supply in the case of an emergency as referred to in Article 11(1), point (c); (d) using coordinated instruments, such as platforms for the purchase of LNG, with other Contracting Parties to maximise the utilisation of LNG and to reduce infrastructure and regulatory barriers to the shared use of LNG to fill underground gas storage facilities; (e) using voluntary mechanisms for the joint procurement of natural gas; (f) providing financial incentives for market participants, including for storage system operators, such as contracts for difference, or providing compensation to market participants for the shortfall in revenues or for costs incurred by them as a result of obligations on market participants, including storage system operators which cannot be covered by revenue; (g) requiring storage capacity holders to use or release unused booked capacities, while still obliging the storage capacity holder not using the storage capacity to pay the agreed price for the whole term of the storage contract; (h) adopting effective instruments for the purchase and management of strategic storage by public or private entities, provided that such instruments do not distort competition or the proper functioning of the internal market; (i) appointing a dedicated entity tasked with meeting the filling target in the event that the filling target would not otherwise be met; (j) providing discounts on storage tariffs; (k) collecting the revenues needed to recover the capital and operational expenditures related to regulated storage facilities as storage tariffs and as a dedicated charge incorporated into transmission tariffs collected only from exit points to final customers located within the same Contracting Parties, provided that revenues collected through tariffs are not larger than the allowed revenues. 2. The measures taken by the Contracting Parties pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be limited to what is necessary to meet the filling trajectories and filling targets. They shall be clearly defined, transparent, proportionate, non-discriminatory and verifiable. They shall not unduly distort competition or the proper functioning of the internal market in gas or endanger the security of gas supply of other Contracting Parties or of the Energy Community. 3. The Contracting Parties shall take all necessary measures to ensure the use of the existing infrastructure at national and regional level for the benefit of the security of gas supply in an efficient way. Those measures shall under no circumstances block or restrict the cross-border use of storage facilities or LNG facilities and shall not limit cross-border transmission capacities allocated in accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/459, as adapted and adopted by Permanent High Level Group Decision 2018/06/PHLG-EnC. 4. When taking measures pursuant to this Article, the Contracting Parties shall apply the energy efficiency first principle, while still achieving the objectives of their respective measures, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as adapted and adopted by Ministerial Council Decision 2021/14/MC-EnC. Article 6c Storage arrangements and burden-sharing mechanism 1. A Contracting Party without underground storage facilities shall ensure that market participants within that Contracting Party have in place arrangements with underground storage system operators or other market participants in Contracting Parties and/or Member States with underground gas storage facilities. Those arrangements shall provide for the use, by 1 November, of storage volumes corresponding to at least 15 % of the average annual gas consumption over the preceding five years of the Contracting Party without underground gas storage facilities. However, where cross-border transmission capacity or other technical limitations prevent a Contracting Party without underground gas storage facilities from fully using 15 % of those storage volumes, that Contracting Party shall store only those volumes that are technically possible. In the event that technical limitations do not allow a Contracting Party to comply with the obligation laid down in the first subparagraph, and that Contracting Party has in place an obligation to store other fuels to replace gas, the obligation laid down in the first subparagraph may exceptionally be met by an equivalent obligation to store fuels other than gas. The technical limitations and the equivalence of the measure shall be demonstrated by the Contracting Party concerned. 2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, a Contracting Party without underground gas storage facilities may develop a burden-sharing mechanism with one or more Contracting Parties and/or Member States with underground gas storage facilities (burden-sharing mechanism). The burden-sharing mechanism shall be based on the relevant data from the latest risk assessment pursuant to Article 7 and shall take into account all of the following parameters: (a) the cost of financial support for meeting the filling target, exclusive of the costs of meeting any strategic storage obligations; (b) the gas volumes needed to meet the demand of protected customers in accordance with Article 6(1); (c) any technical limitations, including the available underground storage capacity, technical cross-border transmission capacity and withdrawal rates. Contracting Parties shall notify the burden-sharing mechanism to the Energy Community Secretariat and the Security of Supply Coordination Group by ….. [two months after the date of entry into force of this Decision]. In the absence of an agreement on a burden-sharing mechanism by that date, Contracting Parties without underground gas storage facilities shall demonstrate that they comply with paragraph 1 and shall notify the Energy Community Secretariat and the Security of Supply Coordination Group accordingly. 3. <…> 4. Contracting Parties without underground gas storage facilities may provide incentives or financial compensation to market participants or transmission system operators, as relevant, for the shortfall in revenues, or for costs incurred by them, as a result of their compliance with their storage obligations pursuant to this Article, where such a shortfall or such costs cannot be covered by revenue, in order to ensure compliance with their obligation to store gas in other Contracting Parties and/or Member States pursuant to paragraph 1 or the implementation of the burden-sharing mechanism. If the incentive or financial compensation is financed through a levy, that levy shall not be applied to cross-border interconnection points. 5. Notwithstanding paragraph 1, where a Contracting Party has underground gas storage facilities located on its territory and the aggregated capacity of those facilities is larger than the annual gas consumption of that Contracting Party, the Contracting Parties without underground gas storage facilities that have access to those facilities shall either: (a) ensure that by 1 November storage volumes correspond at least to the average usage of the storage capacity over the preceding five years, determined, inter alia, by taking into account the flows during withdrawal season over the preceding five years from the Contracting Parties where the storage facilities are located; or (b) demonstrate that storage capacity equivalent to the volume covered by the obligation under point (a) has been booked. If the Contracting Party without underground gas storage facilities can demonstrate that storage capacity equivalent to the volume covered by the obligation under point (a) of the first subparagraph has been booked, paragraph 1 shall apply. The obligation under this paragraph shall be limited to 15 % of the average annual gas consumption over the preceding five years in the Contracting Party concerned. 6. <…> Article 6d Monitoring and enforcement 1. Storage system operators shall report the filling level to the competent authority in each Contracting Party where the underground gas storage facilities concerned are located and, if applicable, to an entity designated by that Contracting Party (the “designated entity”) as follows: (a) for 2022: on each of the intermediate targets set out in Annex Ia; and (b) from 2023: as set pursuant to Article 6a(4). 2. The competent authority and, if applicable, the designated entity of each Contracting Party shall monitor the filling levels of the underground gas storage facilities on their territory at the end of each month and report the results to the Energy Community Secretariat without undue delay. The Energy Community Secretariat may, where appropriate, invite the Energy Community Regulatory Board to assist with such monitoring. 3. Based on the information provided by the competent authority and, if applicable, the designated entity of each Contracting Party, the Energy Community Secretariat shall report regularly to the Security of Supply Coordination Group. 4. The Security of Supply Coordination Group shall assist the Energy Community Secretariat in the monitoring of the filling trajectories and the filling targets, and shall develop guidance for the Energy Community Secretariat on adequate measures to ensure compliance in the event that Contracting Parties deviate from the filling trajectories or do not meet the filling targets. 5. The Contracting Parties shall take the necessary measures to meet the filling trajectories and the filling targets and to enforce upon market participants the storage obligations which are required to meet them, including by imposing sufficiently deterrent sanctions and fines on those market participants. The Contracting Parties shall inform the Energy Community Secretariat without delay of the enforcement measures taken pursuant to this paragraph. 6. Where commercially sensitive information is to be exchanged, the Energy Community Secretariat may convene meetings of the Security of Supply Coordination Group that are restricted to the Contracting Parties and the Energy Community Secretariat. 7. Any information exchanged shall be limited to that which is necessary for the purpose of monitoring compliance with this Regulation. The Energy Community Secretariat, the national regulatory authorities and the Contracting Parties shall preserve the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information received for the purposes of carrying out their obligations.”;