The Bundestag voted by a majority on amendments to the German Energy Security Act, which lead to the abolition of fees for storing gas in the domestic market at border crossings and virtual trading centers from January 1, 2025.
Based on the recommendation of the Bundestag's Energy and Climate Protection Committee of the Social Democratic Party of Germany faction, the conservative bloc of the Christian Democratic and Christian Social Union and the Greens voted in favor of the bill. Free Democratic Party, "Alternative for Germany" and the Left abstained.
The amending law became necessary because the European Commission concluded during the examination procedure that the calculation method established on the basis of the Energy Security Act was incompatible with EU regulation. In addition, gas storage fees make gas transit through Germany so expensive that it becomes more difficult for Central and Eastern European countries to diversify their gas supply sources. “The audit showed that the gas storage fee runs counter to the EU's overall efforts to become independent of Russian natural gas“, said a statement from the Bundestag.
The bill provides for changes to the law, according to which the fee will only be collected from domestic gas metering points from 1 January 2025. Border checkpoints and virtual connection points, through which gas volumes exported abroad were previously subject to storage fees, will no longer be subject to customs duties in the future.
Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia feared that the fall of Germany's coalition government in November could delay the legislative changes they had previously pushed for in 2024.
Earlier, Die Zeit newspaper, citing State Secretary of the German Ministry of Economics Sven Giegold, reportedthat Germany intends to abolish by 2025 the fee from other countries for the use of their gas storage facilities, which was introduced in 2022. According to Giegold, such a step would simplify the transit of raw materials for EU partners. The official also claims that eliminating the tax would reduce the cost of gas transit through Germany and allow neighboring countries to be more independent of Russian gas.