ANNEX IV

In accordance with Article 194 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and as underlined in Article 6 of Directive 2009/73/EC and Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 715/2009, regional cooperation reflects the spirit of solidarity and is also an underlying concept of this Regulation. Regional cooperation is required in particular for the establishment of the risk assessment (Article 9), the Preventive Action Plans and the Emergency Plans (Articles 4, 5 and 10), the infrastructure and supply standards (Articles 6 and 8) and the provisions for Union and regional emergency responses (Article 11). The regional cooperation under this Regulation builds on existing regional cooperation involving natural gas undertakings, Member States and national regulatory authorities to enhance, among other objectives, the security of supply and the integration of the internal energy market, such as the three regional gas markets under the Gas Regional Initiative, the Gas Platform, the High Level Group of the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan, and the Security of Supply Coordination Group of the Energy Community. However, the specific security of supply requirements are likely to foster new cooperation frameworks, and existing areas of cooperation will have to be adapted in order to guarantee the best efficiency. In the light of the increasingly interconnected and interdependent markets and the completion of the internal gas market, cooperation between the following Member States, as an example and among others, including between parts of neighbouring Member States, can enhance their individual and collective security of gas supply: Poland and the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and France, Ireland and the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, Denmark and Sweden, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Romania, Poland and Germany, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, others. Where necessary and appropriate, regional cooperation between Member States may be extended to strengthen cooperation with neighbouring Member States, in particular in the case of gas islands, notably with a view to enhancing interconnections. Member States may also be part of different cooperation clusters.

← anx_III__cpt_1__list_2__text_1 · All articles · REGIONAL COOPERATION →

Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.