The Commission conditionally approved article 22 derogation to the "Poseidon pipeline", a new gas pipeline that will connect Greece and Italy. This derogation, foreseen in article 22 of the Gas directive (2003/55/EC), exempts major new infrastructures from the third party access rules of the same directive for a limited period of time in order to make the investment possible.

The Poseidon pipeline, which is being built by Edison of Italy and DEPA of Greece, will promote more effective competition on the Italian gas market. Firstly, it will enable Edison, a competitor to ENI (which is by far the leading force on the Italian market), to compete more effectively as it will now control its own source of imports. Secondly it gives DEPA, not present on the Italian market, the chance to compete there. Thirdly, a part of the capacity will be made available to third parties, again promoting new competition. In addition to this, there is every possibility that this pipeline will bring gas into the EU directly from "non-traditional" suppliers. Indeed, this is the express aim of the pipeline developers.

Given these very positive elements, the Commission decided to support the decision of the Greek and Italian Regulators to grant the derogation. However, in order to ensure that the criteria under which an exemption can be granted are strictly adhered to, the Commission decided to make the agreement subject to certain conditions.

This decision shows a positive approach by the Commission to new investments that promote the EU's security of gas supply as well as competition. It equally demonstrates an insistence by the Commission that national Regulatory Authorities, when approving derogations, need to limit them to the minimum necessary to enable the project to proceed.