Security of gas supply

Briefing 21-04-2016

The IA report concentrates on the very complex problem of securing access to gas by each Member State in case of disruption of supply. In this regard,  the IA builds a case in favour of common EU action and of improvement of the existing regulation to that end. The IA could have provided more background information on how Member States are grouped into the seven regions under the preferred option and how this is linked to the existing patterns of cooperation. It could also have deepened the scope to devote more attention to the significance of environmental impacts. Finally, the section on monitoring and evaluation could have been made a lot stronger if key monitoring mechanisms had been explained more clearly.