European Parliament approves Gas Directive amendments

BRUSSELS, Apr 4 (PRIME) -- The European Parliament has approved amendments to the E.U. Gas Directive, affecting the undersea parts of pipelines, including Russia’s Nord Stream-2, according to the voting results seen by PRIME on Thursday.

The amendments must be submitted to the E.U. Council at the level of ministers for a final hearing.

The European Commission put forward the amendments to the E.U. gas directive in 2017, suggesting applying the E.U. third energy package to all pipelines that run through the E.U. territory to and from the third countries. The bills require non-discriminatory regulation of tariffs and provision of access of third parties to gas pumping.

This means that the pipelines must have an operator independent of Russian gas giant Gazprom, and third parties must receive access to the capacities. However, only Gazprom can supply gas to the Russian end of the pipeline and is the only company with the right for exports.

The initial draft amendments were softened in February in Strasbourg. The milder version of the amendments envisages temporary exceptions for the pipelines built before the changes come into force.

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