Design, development and implementation of joint purchasing options under EU energy platform : final report

The withdrawal of Russian gas supplies - which started in 2021, and accelerated following Russia's war against Ukraine - led to an energy crisis. There were concerns across Europe, particularly in countries previously dependent on Russian gas supplies, regarding the ability to secure access to sufficient gas volumes. Amid skyrocketing wholesale gas prices in Europe, which peaked in 2022, there was similarly a fear that, in attempting to secure additional volumes from a tight global market, EU member states would bid up prices between themselves. Infrastructure operators and the market had to undertake a significant and rapid adjustment to facilitate increased Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports and gas flows from Western to Eastern Europe. In response to the crisis, the EU quickly introduced a package of emergency legislation to secure energy supplies (for example gas storage filling obligations and energy demand reduction measures), diversify away from the Russian energy sources, and soften the impacts of the crisis on consumers. In addition, to also address the supply side, the EU Energy Platform was established in April 2022. The platform aimed to contribute to affordable and secure (non- Russian) gas supplies for the EU by a coordinated outreach to alternative international suppliers, by means of a more efficient use of existing infrastructure, improved transparency and help to ensure more equal access to new or additional gas sources in the face of the acute threat to the security of supplies, including to LNG supplies. As part of the EU Energy Platform the EU also set up a demand aggregation and joint purchasing mechanism (DA/JPM), called AggregateEU. AggregateEU consolidated demand from European users and tenders this out to (non- Russian) international suppliers to enable joint acquisitions of natural gas. Specifically, four short-term tendering rounds and one mid-term tendering round have been organised between April 2023 and February 2024.