SOLIDITY STEPS IN THE EVENT OF GAS CRISES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION LEGISLATION
Section "Law": Economic and legal comparative research
Abstract
The European Union (EU) put into place new Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 on security of gas supply and revocation of Regulation (EU) 994/2010. The present article provides the critical assessment of new Regulation (EU) 2017/1938. Many instruments of the predecessor Regulation (EU) 994/2014 stay in place unchanged, although their implementation in new legislation has undoubtedly brought about some changes in such instruments. In any case, the present article focuses on the novelties and changes that Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 is bringing about.
After providing some opening remarks on the structure and tasks of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938, the present article examines the two main novelties of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 which should fulfill the main goal of the new legislation, i.e. to implement the new solidarity mechanism in case of gas disruptions. In order to achieve the goal in question, Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 sets forth for the first time the clustering of Member States into gas supply risk groups, on the one hand, and establishment of the solidarity measures under Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 that Member States are obliged to accept and perform in case of gas disruptions, on the other hand.
The solidarity measures are the main novelty of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 since the need to adjust bi-directional interconnection capacity (or reverse flow) was the only concrete solidarity measure used in the previous legislative acts and acts of secondary legislation. Along with fulfillment of such solidarity measures, the article also examines the legal recognition of an exemption from the obligation to perform the solidarity measures that was required in some cases. The other novelties of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 are also highlighted and critically considered. The conclusions on practical efficiency and effectiveness of the mentioned novelties of the legislation for the EU and Ukraine are also provided.
Keywords
Energy Law, energy legislation, principles of law, gas supply security, solidarity mechanism, energy security, Regulation 2017/1938
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References
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