The EU Commission is reluctant to openly criticize the Operation Security of Supply of the German Economics Minister Robert Habeck.

However, nobody in Brussels is particularly happy about Habeck's trips to Norway and Qatar, with which he wants to ensure Germany's long-term supply of natural gas and liquid gas (LNG).

"It is imperative that we avoid Member States now competing to outbid each other to replace Russian gas with other sources," senior Commission officials said with concern.

This applies to the supply of gas and LNG as well as to hydrogen in the medium term.

Henrik Kafsack

Business correspondent in Brussels.

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The EU Commission therefore openly offered itself to the member states on Wednesday as a mediator in order to negotiate gas supplies on behalf of all 27 member states.

The Commission is expressly not only concerned with the gas supply in the coming winter, but also with long-term energy partnerships with key countries such as Qatar, which are aimed at promising energy sources such as hydrogen.

Only if the EU bundles its demand can it prevent gas prices from rising too much, the Commission emphasizes.

After all, the EU currently gets 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia, and the Commission has set a target of replacing two-thirds of that by the end of the year.

By 2027, she wants to completely free the EU from dependence on fossil fuels from Russia.

Rethinking because of the war in Ukraine

In this case, however, the authority cannot offer more than that.

Whether they want to bundle purchasing is ultimately a decision of the member states.

In the past, countries like Germany have reacted very cautiously to similar ideas.

However, the war in Ukraine has also led to a certain rethinking here.

The European heads of state and government could agree on a joint approach at their summit in Brussels this Thursday, at least in the short term.

"Looking ahead to next winter, the Member States and the Commission will urgently work together to buy gas, LNG and hydrogen together," says a draft of the conclusions to be adopted by the Council.

However, headwind came from Berlin on Wednesday.

Everything remains purely voluntary

it was said in government circles.

In addition, it was not Germany or France that bought the gas anyway, but private companies.

In order to ensure that the EU does not find itself in a situation again next winter in which the storage facilities are not sufficiently full, the Commission also presented the previously announced legislative proposal for minimum storage levels on Wednesday.

The storage facilities, with a volume of around 100 billion cubic meters of gas, provide 25 to 30 percent of the gas that is normally consumed in the EU in winter.

Since they were not filled as usual last year due to the already high gas prices, the storage tanks were less than 20 percent full in January.

The only reason the EU didn't have any major problems was because the winter was mild and other countries, from the USA to Norway to Qatar, supplied more gas and LNG, with which the storage facilities were also filled.

The proposed law now stipulates that the storage tanks should be 80 percent full by November 1st this year.

This is less than previously announced.

2022 is a difficult year, and the rules will probably only come into force in the summer, so more is not realistic, according to the EU Commission.

The reservoirs are usually refilled from April onwards.

In the coming years, the storage should then be 90 percent full by November 1st.

The states should each reach different intermediate levels on February 1, May, July and September.

The states should be free to decide how they ensure this.

For example, as the federal government is planning, they can make the operators of the storage facilities or the gas suppliers responsible.

Because at least this year

prices would probably not fall in the summer, the proposal provides for more generous state aid than usual.

States such as Greece, Finland or Luxembourg, which do not have their own storage facilities, are to be given access to the storage facilities of other EU countries.

The Commission is also targeting the storage facilities operated by the Russian energy group Gazprom in the EU.

They have a large share in the fact that the supply was not guaranteed this winter.

At the beginning of March, the storage facilities operated by Gazprom in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic were only 16 percent full.

The other storage facilities of the other operators were also emptier than usual, but reached a level of 44 percent.

The Commission therefore proposes that the operators of the 160 storage facilities in the EU must be checked and certified by the states in future.

A period of 18 months is provided for this.

For storage facilities that were of a certain size and had a below-average fill level this winter, this should happen within 100 days of the EU storage law coming into force.

If it turns out that an operator poses a threat to the security of supply of the region, the country or the EU, the state can ask the company to sell the gas storage facility.