European Council expects hydrogen market to develop later than European Commission

The Energy Ministers’ Council adopted the so-called general approach to the gas decarbonisation package at the end of March. The package is intended to revise the current functioning of the natural gas market. The so-called three liberalisation packages, the last of which was adopted in 2009, aimed to create a single gas market. This, effectively fourth, gas package aims to decarbonise the sector and create a new market for hydrogen and renewable gases.

The European Commission presented its proposal to revise the gas decarbonisation package in December 2021. Since then, it has been up to the Council of the EU and the European Parliament, as the two co-legislators, to analyse the proposal and reach a final compromise through the legislative process.

To simplify and speed up the legislative process, the Council of the EU can put forward a so-called general approach to the Commission’s legislative proposal. This is a political agreement among the member states, incorporating amendments, through which the Council presents its position to the European Parliament before the next round of negotiations begins. Parliament’s position was published in reports (separately for the regulation and the directive) by the ITRE Committee in February 2023.