Brussels – The Council adopted a regulation and a directive establishing common internal market rules for renewable and natural gases and hydrogen and reforming the existing EU gas legislation. The new rules will help make the shift to renewable and low-carbon gases, in particular hydrogen, in the energy system, with a view to achieving the EU’s decarbonisation targets.

Designing the gas and hydrogen market

The gas package sets out solid rules for the organisation of the natural gas market and establishes a strong framework for the development of the future hydrogen market, including for dedicated hydrogen infrastructure.

The new rules call for integrated and transparent network planning across the EU, under the principle of ‘energy efficiency first’ and with a forward-looking approach. Gas and hydrogen network operators will prepare a 10-year EU network development plan. This texts also paves the way for a permanent demand aggregation platform.

Switching to renewable gas

In order to ensure the phase-out of fossil fuels, long-term contracts for fossil gas will no longer be concluded as of 2049. The new rules promote the penetration of renewable gas and low-carbon gas, in particular hydrogen in coal and carbon-intensive regions. Member states will provide for tariff discounts and incentives, in order to facilitate their market and system integration, especially for the nascent hydrogen market, and so to ensure a just transition. A voluntary mechanism will also be set up to support the hydrogen market for five years.

Next steps

The regulation and the directive will now be signed and published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The regulation will become directly applicable six months after its publication. As regards the directive, member states will have two years to adapt their national legislation to the provisions of the directive.