Make energy market fit for hydrogen and EU climate goals

The EPP Group wants to ramp up the production of renewable and low-carbon gases by facilitating their integration into European energy networks. While the EU aims to reach climate-neutrality by 2050, the use of fossil fuels in the EU needs to be gradually reduced and replaced by renewable gases and hydrogen. Today, MEPs agreed new rules on how gas pipelines can be re-used for hydrogen transport and how new hydrogen networks will be planned and financed.

EPP Group MEP Jerzy Buzek is Parliament's chief negotiator for the revision of the EU gas market regulation, the legislative heart of the reform proposals.

"With this legislation we create a well-balanced legal framework that ensures predictability and give incentives for investments to create a European hydrogen infrastructure backbone, while boosting production and the uptake of green and low-carbon hydrogen as well as biomethane. Hydrogen is the fuel that will make Europe economically more resilient, globally competitive and help to combat climate change", said Buzek.

"At the end, this reform package is about creating new jobs, swiftly phasing out all Russian energy sources as a response to the barbaric war against Ukraine as well as about responsibility for our planet. The truth is that hydrogen - a cornerstone of genuine EU green industrial strategy - is important for all Member States, even if not all of them have realized it yet," Buzek added.