Due to several factors which include a country's geographic position, historical development of individual gas markets, existing interconnections, etc, Member States are in very different situation with regards to the security of their gas supplies.
At present there are significant inconsistencies in how Member States define the roles and responsibilities of various market players and the range of the protected customers. Also, the security of supply standards vary among Member States. That means that there is a different level to which each Member State is to be able to maintain adequate gas supplies to the defined customers by its own means under extreme circumstances such as supply disruptions or extreme climate conditions. These inconsistencies might constitute a hindrance to cross-border co-operation during crises and to the development of effective solidarity arrangements.
The internal gas market is under development. The gas markets mainly have a regional character. Several countries are linked along the same major pipeline infrastructure and Member States depend on each other's actions and consumption. Regional cooperation is therefore crucial and may be able to offer a timely response in case of a crisis. However, at the same time a supply shortage is most likely to affect a whole region, which might not be able to cope with it alone. At this stage an EU-level response would be needed.
The Commission puts forward a number of options for each element of the Directive and its implementation which needs improvement, with particular attention to a more suitable definition of security of supply standards, greater transparency concerning security of gas supply data and the establishment of an EU gas emergency plan.
