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1. Member States shall take all necessary measures, including providing for financial incentives or compensation to market participants, to meet the filling targets set pursuant to Article 6a. When ensuring that the filling targets are met, Member States shall prioritise, where possible, market-based measures. To the extent that any of the measures provided for in this Article are duties and powers of the national regulatory authority pursuant to Article 41 of Directive 2009/73/EC, the national regulatory authorities shall be responsible for taking those measures. Measures taken pursuant to this paragraph may, in particular, include:

(a) requiring gas suppliers to store minimum volumes of gas in storage facilities, including in underground gas storage facilities and/or in LNG storage facilities, those volumes to be determined on the basis of the amount of gas supplied by gas suppliers to protected customers;

(b) requiring storage system operators to tender their capacities to market participants;

(c) requiring transmission system operators or entities designated by the Member State to purchase and manage balancing stock exclusively for carrying out their functions as transmission system operators and, where necessary, imposing an obligation on other designated entities for the purpose of safeguarding the security of gas supply in the case of an emergency as referred to in Article 11(1), point (c);

(d) using coordinated instruments, such as platforms for the purchase of LNG, with other Member States to maximise the utilisation of LNG and to reduce infrastructure and regulatory barriers to the shared use of LNG to fill underground gas storage facilities;

(e) using voluntary mechanisms for the joint procurement of natural gas, regarding the application of which the Commission may, if necessary, issue guidance by 1 August 2022;

(f) providing financial incentives for market participants, including for storage system operators, such as contracts for difference, or providing compensation to market participants for the shortfall in revenues or for costs incurred by them as a result of obligations on market participants, including storage system operators which cannot be covered by revenue;

(g) requiring storage capacity holders to use or release unused booked capacities, while still obliging the storage capacity holder not using the storage capacity to pay the agreed price for the whole term of the storage contract;

(h) adopting effective instruments for the purchase and management of strategic storage by public or private entities, provided that such instruments do not distort competition or the proper functioning of the internal market;

(i) appointing a dedicated entity tasked with meeting the filling target in the event that the filling target would not otherwise be met;

(j) providing discounts on storage tariffs;

(k) collecting the revenues needed to recover the capital and operational expenditures related to regulated storage facilities as storage tariffs and as a dedicated charge incorporated into transmission tariffs collected only from exit points to final customers located within the same Member States, provided that revenues collected through tariffs are not larger than the allowed revenues.

2. The measures taken by the Member States pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be limited to what is necessary to meet the filling trajectories and filling targets. They shall be clearly defined, transparent, proportionate, non-discriminatory and verifiable. They shall not unduly distort competition or the proper functioning of the internal market in gas or endanger the security of gas supply of other Member States or of the Union.

3. Member States shall take all necessary measures to ensure the use of the existing infrastructure at national and regional level for the benefit of the security of gas supply in an efficient way. Those measures shall under no circumstances block or restrict the cross-border use of storage facilities or LNG facilities and shall not limit cross-border transmission capacities allocated in accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/459 ().

4. When taking measures pursuant to this Article, Member States shall apply the energy efficiency first principle, while still achieving the objectives of their respective measures, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council ().