EN
L 254/48
Official Journal of the European Union
3.10.2022
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);