Activities of Mark DEMESMAEKER related to 2016/0030(COD)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning measures to safeguard the security of gas supply and repealing Regulation (EU) No 994/2010
Amendments (7)
Amendment 30 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 3 a (new)
Recital 3 a (new)
(3a) This Regulation is to be implemented in challenging times, with global energy markets adversely affected by Russian invasion of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, further tensions in the area of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the Isis control over petrol and gas supplies in the occupied territories, as well as tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Amendment 35 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 6
Recital 6
(6) The Commission Communication ‘Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy’14 from February 2015, highlights the fact that the Energy Union rests on solidarity and trust, which are necessary features of energy security. This regulation should aim to boost solidarity and trust between the Member States and should put in place the measures needed to achieve these aims, thus paving the way for implementing the Energy Union. The Union should therefore support only those diversification-oriented projects that are fully in line with Union law and Union principles as well as with the Union’s long-term policy objectives and priorities. __________________ 14 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the European Investment Bank, COM(2015) 80 final.
Amendment 77 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 36
Recital 36
(36) As demonstrated by the October 2014 stress test, solidarity is needed to ensure security of supply across the Union and to keep overall costs to a minimum. If an emergency is declared in any Member State, a two-step approach should be applied to strengthen solidarity. Firstly, all Member States which have introduced a higher supply standard should reduce it to default values to make the gas market more liquid. Secondly, if the first step fails to provide the necessary supply, further measures by neighbouring Member States, even if not in an emergency situation, should be triggered to ensure the supply to households, essential social services and district heating installations in the Member State experiencing the emergency. Member States should identify and describe the details of these solidarity measures in their emergency plans, ensuring fair and equitable compensation of the natural gas undertakings. The Commission should also ensure that dominant gas suppliers in a region do not abuse their position in breach of Union competition law, with particular reference to unfair prices charged in Member States.
Amendment 86 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 42
Recital 42
(42) Since gas supplies from third countries are central to the security of the Union gas supply, the Commission should coordinate action with regard to third countries, work with supplying and transit countries on arrangements to handle crisis situations and ensure a stable gas flow to the Union. The Commission should be entitled to deploy a task force to monitor gas flows into the Union in crisis situations, in consultation with the third countries involved, and, where a crisis arises from difficulties in a third country, to act as mediator and facilitator. The Commission should continue its active involvement in the renewal of trilateral talks Commission-Gazprom-Ukraine on Russian gas supplies to Ukraine in order to ensure that gas supplies from Russia to Ukraine would not be a weapon in Russia-Ukraine conflict anymore and that Ukraine continues to be a reliable gas partner and transit country.
Amendment 94 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 2 – point 1 – introductory part
Article 2 – paragraph 2 – point 1 – introductory part
(1) ‘protected customer’ means a household customer connected to a gas distribution network and, in addition, where thein the event that the competent authorities of each Member State concerned so decides, may also mean one or more of the following:
Amendment 111 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2
No later than 31 March 2017 Member Stat, the competent authorities shall notify the Commission of their definition of protected customers, the annual gas consumption volumes of the protected customers and the percentage they represent of the total annual final gas consumption in that Member State. Where a Member State includes in its definition of protected customers the categories referred to in point (a) or (b) of Article 2 (1) it shall specify in the notification to the Commission the gas consumption volumes corresponding to consumers belonging to those categories and the percentage that each of those groups of consumers represents in terms of the annual final use of gas.
Amendment 158 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 12 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2
Article 12 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2
The first subparagraph shall apply to essential social services and district heating installations to the extent they are covered by the definition of protected customers applied by the competent authorities in the respective Member State.