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EU extends gas-storage rules to 2027 — here’s the upside

EU Parliament and Council decide to extends 90 % gas-storage rule to 2027 while granting countries new leeway to navigate volatile markets.

The European Parliament has ratified a compromise with the Council that prolongs the EU’s emergency gas-storage regime until the end of 2027 while softening its most rigid elements. Whereas the Commission had merely proposed shifting the sunset date of the existing 90 % filling obligation, lawmakers added a wider “landing zone” for the target (any time between 1 October and 1 December) and a tiered system of derogations that can lower the benchmark by up to 10 percentage points—plus a further 5 points for large producers or slow-injecting sites, and another 5 points via delegated act in a crisis. Trajectories remain but become indicative, reporting now includes the share of Russian gas in storage, and countries without facilities still have to book 15 % of their demand abroad. The deal, expected to enter into force ahead of the 2025–26 heating season, offers member states cost-saving flexibility while preserving a headline target seen as vital for winter security of supply; a full review will decide by 2027 whether permanent rules should replace this stop-gap arrangement.

By eEuropa

6 MINUTES READ

Brussels, 11 July 2025 – The European Parliament has voted to confirm the deal it struck with the Council on a new Regulation that keeps Europe’s emergency gas-storage discipline in place until the end of 2027, while giving governments a wider margin to cope with volatile prices and supply risks. Read the adopted text.

For traders, system operators and national energy ministries, the headline remains clear: the 90 % November target lives on, but with just enough room to breathe when markets get ugly. The compromise keeps the EU’s crisis muscle-memory intact while acknowledging that the next two winters may require tactical agility rather than rigid rules.



What the Commission originally asked for

The Commission tabled an ultra-focused Proposal for a Reglation: simply prolong the gas-storage chapter of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 by two years.

• Objective: maintain the obligation for every Member State to have its underground storage sites 90 % full by 1 November each year, together with the national “filling trajectories” that lead up to that date.
• No other substantive changes: the text literally just replaced the sunset date in Article 22 with “31 December 2027”, arguing that an unchanged rollover was the quickest way to keep a proven crisis tool alive while a broader security-of-supply review runs its course.

What Parliament and Council rewrote during negotiations

The co-legislators accepted the two-year extension but overlaid it with a set of safeguards and reporting tweaks that respond to lessons from the 2022-25 energy-price spikes:

Theme	Final deal (Parliament + Council)	Why it matters
Timing of the 90 % target	Member States must reach 90 % at any point between 1 October and 1 December instead of maintaining it from 1 November onward.	Lets operators withdraw early in cold autumns without risking fines.
National flexibilities (new Art. 6a §§5a-5f)	Governments may deviate by: • up to 10 pp in “difficult conditions” (e.g. high prices) (5a); • an additional 5 pp if they either produce more gas than they consume, or run a single mega-storage (> 40 TWh) that injects very slowly (5b); • the Commission can add another 5 pp for one season by delegated act if markets stay strained (5c).	Injects flexibility without scrapping the headline 90 % discipline.
Small percentage tweaks	Fine-tuned “decimal” margins (3.88 pp, 1.66 pp) so that trajectories, storage-less Member States and burden-sharing rules stay mathematically aligned when derogations kick in.	Avoids legal gaps if a country exercises the new flex rights.
Indicative trajectories	Trajectories remain, but are now explicitly “indicative”; Member States only have to strive to follow them and report deviations, not hit them rigidly.	Recognises fast-moving LNG spot markets while keeping visibility for neighbours.
Transparency on Russian gas	Storage-level reporting must, “where such information is available”, include the share of gas of Russian origin stored in each Member State.	Aligns with the EU’s goal of fully phasing out Russian imports.
Member States with no storage	Still obliged to book storage in another country equal to 15 % of their five-year consumption, but wording updated to reflect technical limits and to streamline proof-of-compliance notifications.

What happens next

• Entry into force: the regulation will start the day after its publication in the Official Journal, well ahead of the 1 October 2025 storage deadline.
• Review clause: By 2027 the Commission will decide – backed by an impact assessment already under way – whether permanent storage obligations should replace this temporary regime. eur-lex.europa.eu

Why member states like the deal

1. It keeps the security blanket but removes the price-pressure squeeze.
   Ministers were worried that a hard 90 %-by-1 November rule was “telling the market” they all had to buy gas at the same moment, bidding prices up. Allowing the target to be hit any time between 1 October and 1 December – and letting countries slip by up to 10 percentage points in tough market conditions – means they can shop earlier or later, smoothing demand curves and avoiding speculative spikes.
   
2. Flexibility is tailored to national realities.
   Big producers such as the Netherlands – or countries that operate one very slow-injecting mega-cavern – can claim an extra 5 pp derogation. That spares them the cost of topping up storage they are unlikely to need while still keeping neighbours safe.
   
3. It still sends a strong “security-of-supply” signal.
   The headline 90 % target remains binding and storage facilities supply roughly one-third of winter gas use. Member states know the political backlash they faced in 2021–22, and the extended rule is the cheapest insurance against another shortage.
   
4. More room for tactical buying lowers public‐finance risk.
   Energy ministries can time purchases when LNG cargoes are abundant and forward prices dip, limiting the need for expensive strategic stock subsidies or emergency support schemes for utilities.
   
5. It curbs market manipulation and keeps solidarity lines open.
   The derogations are explicitly linked to “unfavourable market conditions” or “possible market manipulations,” and the Commission can tighten or loosen them by delegated act. That reassures capitals that a sudden squeeze in one corner of the market will not spill over and drain everyone’s storage.
   
6. Regulatory certainty while the long-term overhaul is drafted.
   Extending the regime to the end of 2027 gives governments and network operators a clear rulebook for the next two winters while the broader gas-market and hydrogen-market reforms are negotiated. No one has to rewrite national energy bills every spring.
   
7. Political optics: showing unity against external pressure.
   Ministers can tell voters and industry that Europe remains “resilient to price manipulation” and “won’t be held hostage” to future supply shocks – a line that plays well across the entire Council table.
   
   

Gas Consumption vs. Gas stored

What the chart and table show

• Orange line (right-hand side of the DataFrame): EU gas consumption, measured in billion cubic metres (bcm).
  Demand rose gently in 2016-2019, dipped during the pandemic year 2020, recovered in 2021, then fell sharply in 2022 and 2023 as prices spiked and emergency savings rules kicked in, before stabilising in 2024. 2024 consumption (≈ 332 bcm) is still about 20 % below the 412 bcm recorded in the pre-crisis year 2021.
• Red line: working gas in storage on 1 November each year.
  Each point is the percentage fill reported by Gas Infrastructure Europe and the Commission, converted into bcm using the EU’s aggregate working-gas capacity of ≈ 105 bcm (COM 2025 98 final).
  • 2016-2020 show “normal-market” behaviour (roughly 90–100 bcm in store).
  • 2021 stands out: storage entered the 2021/22 winter unusually low (only 77 % full, ≈ 81 bcm) – one of the triggers of the subsequent price crisis.
  • Emergency legislation then required 80 % filling in 2022 and 90 % from 2023 onward. Both targets were exceeded: 94.9 % in 2022 (≈ 99.6 bcm)  and “close to 100 %” in 2023 (≈ 104–105 bcm)
  • By 1 Nov 2024 the level was 95 % (≈ 100 bcm) – still well above the statutory 90 % target.
    
    

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