Source: Coreper votes for Gas Directive amendments

BRUSSELS, Feb 21 (PRIME) -- The E.U. Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) voted for amendments to the E.U. Gas Directive without changes to a compromise version on Wednesday, a source with knowledge of the issue told PRIME on Thursday.

“Yes, they did,” the source said. The amendments must now be approved by the European parliament and then by the E.U. Council, the source said.

The European Commission put forward 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 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 but 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 changed to make them milder in February in Strasbourg. The milder version of the amendments envisages temporary exceptions for the pipelines built before the changes enter in force.

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