Public consultation launched on hydrogen and decarbonising the EU gas market

The Commission has launched today an open public consultation on revising the Gas Directive and Gas Regulation in the context of the European Green Deal ambition to decarbonise the EU gas sector and, more broadly, achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The feedback from this consultation will feed into the Commission’s preparations of legislative proposals for a new hydrogen and gas markets decarbonisation package intended for publication before the end of the year.

The objective of this consultation is to seek stakeholder views on how the Gas Directive and Gas Regulation should be revised to facilitate the uptake of renewable and low-carbon gases and consumer empowerment, while ensuring integrated, liquid and interoperable EU internal gas markets.  

The issues raised in the consultation relate primarily to the cost-efficient decarbonisation of the existing gas sector. This includes questions on how to enable and foster a market for renewable and low carbon hydrogen, allowing it to become a key component of the energy sector. It also addresses how to facilitate the injection, transmission, distribution and trading of renewable and low carbon gases in the existing gas grid in the context of the wider energy system integration.

To organise the transition from fossil to carbon-free fuels and to achieve a climate-neutral Europe by 2050, the Commission will table the ’Fit for 55’ package to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 this June. This will cover wide-ranging policy areas – from renewables, to energy efficiency, to energy performance of buildings, as well as emissions trading, effort sharing, land use and energy taxation. The on-going reviews of the Renewable Energy Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive are addressing, among other things, issues of regulatory incentives for production and consumption of renewable energy. Future gas market legislation will need to be consistent with measures under both Directives, as well as other measures under the ‘Fit for 55’ package. It will also build on elements outlined in other European Green Deal initiatives such as the hydrogen strategy and the energy system integration strategy. 

All stakeholders are invited to contribute to this consultation by filling-in the online questionnaire.

This consultation will be open for 12 weeks, until 18 June.

Related link

• Hydrogen and decarbonised gas market package