Intergovernmental agreements in the field of energy

Briefing 17-06-2016

The Commission has proposed a decision which would require Member States to submit draft intergovernmental agreements with non-EU countries in the field of energy to it before they are signed. The Commission would then check whether they are compliant with EU law, and Member States would have to take full account of the Commission's opinion. At present, Member States are required to submit such agreements to the Commission after signature. The Commission considers the present system as ineffective. The ITRE Committee draft report of 30 May 2016 proposed strengthening the decision to require ex-ante verification also for non-binding instruments. On 6 June, energy ministers in the Council agreed a general approach that would restrict ex-ante verification to agreements related to gas supply only. Three national parliaments have raised subsidiarity concerns, and four submitted comments. A more recent edition of this document is available. Find it by searching by the document title at this address: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/home.html