[GGP] MEPs Decry EC's Approach to Amending Gas Directive

MEP Stefano Maullu, EPP Italian Delegation, took a stance towards the European Commission on the procedure to amend the Gas Directive. Due to the strategic importance of the gas providers from third countries to the Italian peninsula, and to the rest of the EU, he wrote this open letter intending to claim the necessary attention on such a relevant issue.

Stefano Maullu 

Stefano Maullu 

Deputato al Parlamento Europeo 

Antonio Tajani 

President, European Parliament 

Boyko Borisov 

President of the Council (January- June 2018) 

Frans Timmermans 

First Vice-President of the European Commission 

(Better Regulation, Interinstitutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights) 

Maroš Šefčovič 

Vice-President of the European Commission for Energy Union 

Miguel Arias Cañete 

European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy 

Jerzy Buzek 

Chair of the ITRE Committee, European Parliament 

Brussels, 10 January 2018 

Dear Presidents, 

Dear Vice Presidents, 

Dear Commissioner, 

Dear Chair, 

We would like to bring to your attention several critical issues related to the European Commission’s proposal for amendments to the Gas Directive 2009/73/EC.We are concerned about a deviation from established decision-making practice and the principles of better regulation, a key priority of President Juncker and First Vice-President Timmermans which we fully support. 

1. The European Commission’s proposal envisages the expansion of the rules of the EU Gas Directive to all existing and future onshore and offshore external gas pipelines. The wording of the proposal seems to significantly change the scope of the existing legislation. It touches upon investment framework and multibillion infrastructure projects. We believe that it is important to make sure that these amendments are subject to ordinary legislative scrutiny by the Members of the Parliament. 

2. However, as we understand, no in-depth evaluation of their impact was carried out, nor 12-week stakeholder consultations of such an impact assessment were held prior to the announcement of the proposed amendments. At the same time, the absence of relevant data and a tight timeline for the fast legislative procedure could undermine adequate scrutiny of the proposed legislation by the co-legislators.  

3. This concerns in particular the deliberations in the European Parliament. We do appreciate that the Commission on December 6th provided an online-tool for public feedback about the proposed legislation. However, while the deadline for stakeholder feedback has been set for January 31st 2018, the deadline for proposed amendments in ITRE is already on January 16th. This means that ITRE members cannot take full account of stakeholder feedback about the proposed legislation when they are proposing possible amendments. This is particularly problematic, since the Commission did not provide an impact assessment and did not conduct a public consultation in advance of launching the legislative initiative. Such an approach is not in-line with the Commission’s own Better Regulation Guidelines and with the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016.  

On the basis of these considerations we request: 

- that the Commission addresses the shortcomings of the legislative preparations by providing a thorough assessment of impacts from the proposed legislation; 

- that the President of the European Parliament and the Chair of the ITRE Committee ensure an appropriate timeframe for the discussion of the proposed amendments to the Gas Directive. 

We remain at your disposal for further debates and initiatives on this important issue. 

Sincerely, 

Stefano Maullu, Aldo Patriciello, Peter Kouroumbashev, Markus Pieper, Hermann Winkler, Joachim Zeller, Martina Werner, Werner Langen, Neoklis Sylikiotis, Aymeric Chauprade, Tatjana Zdanoka, Andrejs Mamikins, Eva Kaili, Christian Ehler, Knut Fleckenstein 

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