Article 1 Subject matter and scope
This Regulation establishes rules to address a situation of severe difficulties in the supply of gas, with a view to safeguarding Union security of gas supply, in a spirit of solidarity. Those rules include improved coordination, monitoring of and reporting on national gas demand-reduction measures and the possibility for the Council to declare, on a proposal from the Commission, a Union alert as a Union-specific crisis level, triggering a mandatory Union-wide demand-reduction obligation.
Article 2 Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply: (1) ‘competent authority’ means a national governmental authority or a national regulatory authority designated by a Member State to ensure the implementation of the measures provided for in Regulation (EU) 2017/1938; (2) ‘Union alert’ means a Union-specific crisis level triggering a mandatory demand reduction and which is not related to any of the crisis levels pursuant to Article 11(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938; (3) ‘gas consumption’ means the overall supply of natural gas for activities on the territory of a Member State, including the final consumption of households, industry and electricity generation, but excluding, inter alia, gas used to fill storage capacities, in line with the definition for ‘supply, transformation and consumption of gas’ used by the Commission (Eurostat); (4) ‘feedstock’ means ‘non-energy use of natural gas’ as referred to in energy balances calculations by the Commission (Eurostat); (5) ‘reference gas consumption’ means the volume of a Member State’s average gas consumption during the reference period; for Member States where gas consumption increased at least by 8 % in the period from 1 August 2021 to 31 March 2022 compared to the average gas consumption during the reference period, ‘reference gas consumption’ means only the volume of gas consumption in the period from 1 August 2021 to 31 March 2022; (6) ‘reference period’ means the periods from 1 August to 31 March during the five consecutive years preceding the date of entry into force of this Regulation, starting with the period from 1 August 2017 to 31 March 2018; (7) ‘intermediate target’ means the intermediate target as set out in Annex Ia to Regulation (EU) 2017/1938.
Article 3 Voluntary demand reduction
Member States shall use their best efforts to reduce their gas consumption in the period from 1 August 2022 to 31 March 2023 at least by 15 % compared to their average gas consumption in the period from 1 August to 31 March during the five consecutive years preceding the date of entry into force of this Regulation (‘voluntary demand reduction’). Articles 6, 7 and 8 shall apply to those voluntary demand-reduction measures.
Article 4 Declaration of a Union alert by the Council
1. The Council, on a proposal from the Commission, by means of an implementing decision, may declare a Union alert. 2. The Commission shall present the proposal for such a Union alert where it considers that there is a substantial risk of a severe gas supply shortage or where an exceptionally high demand for gas occurs, for which the measures in Article 3 are not sufficient and which results in a significant deterioration of the gas supply situation in the Union, but where the market is able to manage the disruption without the need for non-market-based measures. 3. The Commission shall also submit a proposal to the Council to declare a Union alert where five or more competent authorities that have declared an alert at national level pursuant to Article 11(1), point (b), of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 so request. 4. The Council, acting by a qualified majority, may amend the Commission’s proposal. 5. Before submitting a proposal to the Council to declare a Union alert, the Commission shall consult the relevant risk groups, as set out in Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 (‘risk groups’), and the Gas Coordination Group (GCG), established by Article 4 of that Regulation. 6. On a proposal from the Commission, the Council may, by means of an implementing decision, declare an end to the Union alert and to the obligations pursuant to Article 5. The Commission shall present the proposal for such implementing decision to the Council where it considers, following an assessment, that the underlying basis for the Union alert no longer justifies the maintenance of that alert, and after consultation of the relevant risk groups and the GCG.
Article 5 Mandatory demand reduction in the event of a Union alert
1. Where the Council declares a Union alert, each Member State shall reduce its gas consumption in accordance with paragraph 2 (‘mandatory demand reduction’). 2. For the purpose of mandatory demand reduction, for as long as the Union alert is declared, gas consumption in each Member State over the period from 1 August 2022 to 31 March 2023 (‘reduction period’) shall be 15 % lower compared to its reference gas consumption. Any demand reductions achieved by Member States during the period before the Union alert was declared shall be taken into account for the purpose of the mandatory demand reduction. 3. A Member State whose electricity system is synchronised only with the electricity system of a third country shall be exempted from applying paragraph 2 in the event it is desynchronised from that third country's system for as long as isolated power system services or other services to the power transmission system operator are required to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the power system. 4. A Member State shall be exempted from applying paragraph 2 for as long as that Member State is not directly interconnected to a gas interconnected system of any other Member State. 5. A Member State may limit the reference gas consumption used for calculation of the mandatory demand-reduction target pursuant to paragraph 2 by the volume of gas equal to the difference between its intermediate target for 1 August 2022 and the actual volume of stored gas on 1 August 2022, if it fulfils the intermediate target on that date. 6. A Member State may limit the reference gas consumption used for calculation of the mandatory demand-reduction target pursuant to paragraph 2 by the volume of gas consumed during the reference period as feedstock. 7. A Member State may limit the mandatory demand reduction by 8 percentage points, provided that it demonstrates that its interconnection with other Member States measured in firm technical export capacity compared to its yearly gas consumption in 2021 is below 50 % and that capacity on interconnectors to other Member States has in fact been used for the transport of gas at a level of at least 90 % for at least one month before the notification of the derogation, unless the Member State can show there was no demand and the capacity was maximised, and that its domestic LNG facilities are commercially and technically ready to re-direct gas to other Member States up to the volumes required by the market. 8. A Member State facing an electricity crisis may temporarily limit the mandatory demand reduction pursuant to paragraph 2 to the level necessary to mitigate the risk for electricity supply if there are no other economic alternatives to replace the gas necessary for producing electricity without seriously endangering security of supply. In that case, the Member State shall notify the reasons for the limitation and provide sufficient evidence for the exceptional circumstances justifying the limitation. Where necessary, the Member State shall update the risk preparedness plan pursuant to Article 10 of Regulation (EU) 2019/941. 9. A Member State shall notify its decision to limit the mandatory demand reduction pursuant to paragraphs 5, 6, 7 and 8 to the Commission, together with the necessary evidence that the conditions for limiting the mandatory demand reduction are fulfilled. A notification in respect of paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 may already be made after the entry into force of this Regulation and shall not be made later than two weeks after a Union alert has been declared. A notification in respect of paragraph 8 may be made no later than two weeks after the situation of an electricity crisis referred to in that paragraph has arisen. The Member State shall also inform the relevant risk groups and the GCG of its intention. 10. On the basis of the notification and after consultation of the risk groups and the GCG, the Commission shall assess whether the conditions for a limitation pursuant to paragraphs 5, 6, 7 and 8 are fulfilled. In the event that the Commission finds that a limitation is not justified, it shall adopt an opinion indicating the reasons why the Member State should remove or modify the limitation of the mandatory demand reduction. That opinion shall be adopted no later than 30 working days after the complete notification pursuant to paragraph 9. 11. Where the conditions for the limitation of the mandatory demand reduction in paragraphs 5, 6, 7 and 8 are no longer fulfilled, the Member State shall apply the mandatory demand-reduction target pursuant to paragraph 2. 12. The Commission shall continuously monitor whether the conditions for a limitation of the mandatory demand reduction pursuant to paragraphs 5, 6, 7 and 8 are fulfilled. 13. Articles 6, 7 and 8 shall apply to mandatory demand-reduction measures without prejudice to existing long-term contracts.
Article 6 Measures to achieve the demand reduction
1. Member States shall be free to choose the appropriate measures to reduce demand. The measures referred to in Articles 3 and 5 shall be clearly defined, transparent, proportionate, non-discriminatory and verifiable. When selecting the measures, Member States shall take into account the principles set out in Regulation (EU) 2017/1938. The measures shall, in particular: (a) not unduly distort competition or the proper functioning of the internal market in gas; (b) not endanger the security of gas supply of other Member States or of the Union; (c) comply with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 as regards protected customers. 2. When taking demand-reduction measures, Member States shall consider prioritising measures affecting customers other than protected customers, as defined in Article 2, point 5, of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938, and may also exclude those customers from such measures on the basis of objective and transparent criteria which shall take into account their economic importance as well as, among others, the following elements: (a) the impact of a disruption on supply chains that are critical for society; (b) the possible negative impacts in other Member States, in particular on supply chains of downstream sectors that are critical for society; (c) the potential long-lasting damage to industrial installations; (d) the possibilities for reducing consumption and substituting products in the Union. 3. When deciding the demand-reduction measures, the Member States shall consider measures to reduce gas consumed in the electricity sector, measures to encourage fuel switch in the industry, national awareness-raising campaigns, and targeted obligations to reduce heating and cooling, to promote switching to other fuels and reduce consumption by industry.
Article 7 Coordination of demand-reduction measures
1. To ensure appropriate coordination of voluntary and mandatory demand-reduction measures pursuant to Articles 3 and 5, Member States shall cooperate with each other within each of the relevant risk groups. 2. The competent authority of each Member State shall update its national emergency plan established pursuant to Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 by 31 October 2022 at the latest, to reflect voluntary demand-reduction measures. Each Member State shall also update its national emergency plan, as appropriate, in the event of a declaration of a Union alert pursuant to Article 4 of this Regulation. Articles 8(6) to (10) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 shall not apply to the updates of the national emergency plans made pursuant to this paragraph. 3. Member States shall consult the Commission and the relevant risk groups before adopting the revised emergency plans. The Commission may call for meetings of the risk groups and the GCG, taking into account any views expressed by the Member States in that context, to discuss issues related to national demand-reduction measures.
Article 8 Monitoring and enforcement
1. The competent authority of each Member State shall monitor the implementation of the demand-reduction measures on its territory. Member States shall report on the demand reduction achieved to the Commission every two months and not later than by the 15th of the following month. The risk groups and the GCG shall assist the Commission in the monitoring of the voluntary and mandatory demand reduction. 2. Where the Commission identifies, on the basis of the reported demand-reduction figures, a risk that a Member State will not be able to fulfil the mandatory demand-reduction obligation pursuant to Article 5, the Commission shall request the Member State to submit a plan setting out a strategy to effectively achieve the demand-reduction obligation. The Commission shall also request a Member State requesting a solidarity measure pursuant to Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 to submit a plan setting out the strategy to achieve possible further gas demand reductions, in line with Article 10(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938. In both cases, the Commission shall issue an opinion with comments and suggestions on the submitted plans and inform the Council of its opinion. The Member State in question shall take due account of the Commission's opinion. 3. The Commission shall inform the European Parliament and the Council regularly about the implementation of this Regulation.
Article 9 Review
By 1 May 2023, the Commission shall carry out a review of this Regulation in view of the general situation of gas supply to the Union and present a report on the main findings of that review to the Council. Based on that report, the Commission may in particular propose to prolong the period of application of this Regulation.
Article 10 Entry into force and application
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union . It shall apply for a period of one year from its entry into force.