Article 3

Security of gas supply is a shared responsibility of natural gas undertakings, Member States, notably through their Competent Authorities, and the Commission, within their respective areas of activities and competence. Such shared responsibility requires a high degree of cooperation between them. As soon as possible and no later than 3 December 2011, each Member State shall designate a Competent Authority that ensures the implementation of the measures provided for in this Regulation. Where appropriate, until the Competent Authority is formally designated, the national entities currently responsible for security of gas supply shall carry out the measures to be implemented by the Competent Authority in accordance with this Regulation. Those measures shall include the carrying out of the risk assessment referred to in Article 9, and, on the basis of that risk assessment, the establishment of a Preventive Action Plan and an Emergency Plan, and the regular monitoring of security of gas supply at national level. Competent Authorities shall cooperate with each other to seek to prevent a supply disruption and to limit damages in such an event. Nothing shall prevent Member States from adopting implementing legislation, if needed, to comply with the requirements of this Regulation. Each Member State shall notify to the Commission without delay the name of the Competent Authority, once designated, and, where appropriate, the names of the national entities responsible for security of gas supply acting as provisional Competent Authority in accordance with paragraph 2. Each Member State shall make such designations public. When implementing the measures provided for in this Regulation, the Competent Authority shall establish the roles and responsibilities of the different actors involved in such a way as to ensure that a three-level approach is respected which involves first the relevant natural gas undertakings and industry, then Member States at national or regional level, and then the Union. The Commission shall, where appropriate, coordinate the action of the Competent Authorities at regional and Union levels, as set out in this Regulation, inter alia, through the Gas Coordination Group referred to in Article 12 or the crisis management group referred to in Article 11(4), in particular in the event of a Union or regional emergency as defined in Article 11(1). The measures to ensure the security of supply contained in the Preventive Action Plans and in the Emergency Plans shall be clearly defined, transparent, proportionate, non-discriminatory and verifiable, shall not unduly distort competition and the effective functioning of the internal market in gas and shall not endanger the security of gas supply of other Member States or of the Union as a whole.

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