European Parliament calls for more gas storage flexibility in approved draft law

The European Parliament on May 8 adopted a draft law designed to introduce more flexibility into the EU's gas storage rules, including a 75% floor for stock levels.

The Parliament said it adopted the draft law -- which seeks to address speculation on the gas market and bring down prices -- with 425 votes in favor, 106 against, and 43 abstentions.

It follows a vote in favor of the introduction of more flexible EU gas storage filling targets by the European Parliament's industry committee on April 24.

MEPs will now enter into negotiations with the Polish presidency of the EU Council. A first round of talks is scheduled for 13 May.

In the draft law, MEPs proposed reducing the filling target from 90% to 83%, to be met at any point in time between Oct. 1 and Dec. 1 each year.

Under the current European Commission proposal to extend the gas storage regulation, member states without derogations are obligated to fill storage sites to 90% of capacity by Nov. 1.

The Parliament also said member states would be allowed to deviate by up to four percentage points from the filling target in the event of "unfavorable market conditions" such as supply disruptions or high demand.

It said the EC could further increase this deviation by up to an additional four percentage points if these market conditions persist.

"Member states would however have to ensure that the cumulative effects of flexibilities and derogations do not bring down overall storage filling obligations below 75%," the Parliament said.

Stock levels

The EU ended the past gas winter on March 31 with storage sites filled to just 33.8% of capacity, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

As of May 6, EU storage sites were 41.6% full, GIE data showed.

Certain EU member states and MEPs have called for more flexibility around storage filling given concerns that the strict targets were leading to increased market speculation and a rush by member states to fill storage sites at the same time, leading to higher prices.

There have also been concerns over the likely rate of refilling this summer as traditional storage economics have been impacted in recent months by a negative summer-winter spread.

The spread has now reversed but remains narrow.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the Q3 2025 benchmark TTF gas price on May 7 at Eur34.45/MWh compared with a Winter 25 assessment of Eur35.56/MWh.

The EU adopted its gas storage regulation (EU/2022/1032) in June 2022 and the rules had been set to remain in effect until the end of 2025.

However, the EC proposed to extend it to the end of 2027 on March 5, saying it would also allow member states flexibility when deciding on measures to refill storage facilities, allowing facilities to be refilled throughout the summer at "optimal purchase conditions."

The EC also said that it would provide more flexibility in the event of "deviations" from the filling trajectory and deciding on the possible enforcement steps.

The European Council, representing member states, laid out its negotiating position on the EC's proposal to extend the storage regulation on April 11.

The Council said the 90% target should be reached anytime between Oct. 1 and Dec. 1, instead of the current Nov. 1 deadline.

It also said that intermediary storage targets for each member state in February, May, July and September should be indicative to leave sufficient flexibility for market participants throughout the year.

And, it said, in the event of unfavorable market conditions, member states should be able to deviate by up to 10% from the filling target.

Under the existing EU rules, filling levels that are up to five percentage points below the target are already also considered to comply with the targets of the regulation.

Six member states also benefit from derogations with regard to their gas storage filling requirements.

Five of them -- Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia and Slovakia -- qualify for a derogation because their storage capacity is disproportionately large relative to their consumption.

The Netherlands also has a derogation based on its export of a certain volume of gas to third countries during a reference period from 2016 to 2021, which can be subtracted from the storage volume requirement.

Russian gas

The Parliament also said a full embargo on Russian gas supplies to the EU was "both necessary and feasible."

"In light of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine, member states should refrain from storing gas of Russian origin," it said.

MEPs also called on the EU to pursue "immediate sanctions" on Russian gas imports, including LNG.

"It's very important that Europe was able to protect its citizens in a situation where Russia was using gas as a weapon of blackmail," rapporteur Borys Budka said during the Parliament debate.

Parliament wants to "provide for more flexibility and less bureaucracy but above all to bring Europe's gas prices down," Budka said.

The EC on May 6 presented its long-awaited roadmap for eliminating Russian energy imports, saying it would give legislative proposals in June to implement a ban by the end of 2025 on the import of Russian gas both under new contracts and existing spot contracts.

In the roadmap, first expected in February, the EC also said it would propose next month a ban on the remaining imports of Russian gas and LNG -- volumes imported under existing long-term contracts -- to take effect no later than the end of 2027.

The EC has made it a political priority to end Russian energy imports by 2027, despite some member states remaining dependent on Russian pipeline gas, in particular Hungary and Slovakia.