Berlin (Euraactiv.com/.de) – Germany has not waited for the European Union (EU) to update its gas storage objectives for next winter and this week has decided to reduce its national bar, from 90% to 80%.
“These requirements also apply to the four porous storage facilities in southern Germany, which are also important for supply security in Austria and Switzerland,” said the Ministry of Energy in a statement issued Wednesday.
The less crucial porous storage facilities will have to be filled only to 45%, according to sources from the Ministry.
EU legislation demands that underground gas storage facilities They are filled at 90% of their capacity in early November to guarantee a sufficient reservation for winter.
However, with the measure there is a risk of Artificially inflate gas prices in summer due to the need to respect the intermediate objectives and longer.
In that sense, the EU institutions are in the process of modifying the norms in force to add more flexibility and avoid increases in gas prices, especially in a year in which Europe began the filling season with few stocks in its hydrocarbon storage deposits.
To date, EU governments have proposed to maintain the objective of 90%, but with 10 margin points and other flexibilities.
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For its part, the European Parliament will propose a filling target of 83%, also with more flexibility.
The final negotiations are expected to begin once Parliament adopts its negotiating position in this month of May.
But Germany has decided to act before the new standards of the block are decided.
In that sense, sources from the Ministry explained to Euraactiv that he has acted after a close dialogue with the EU institutions and that the new standards would apply this year.
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(Edited by EPD/Eurativ.com y Fernando Heller/Euractiv.es)
