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(1) Regulation (EC) No 715/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council has been substantially amended several times. Since further amendments are to be made, that Regulation should be recast in the interests of clarity.

(2) The internal market for natural gas, which has been progressively implemented since 1999, aims to deliver real choice for all consumers in the Union, be they citizens or businesses, new business opportunities and more cross-border trade, so as to achieve efficiency gains, competitive prices and higher standards of service, and to contribute to security of supply and sustainability.

(3) By means of Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 of the European Parliament and of the Council , the Union has committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The internal market rules for gaseous fuels need to be aligned with that Regulation. In that context, the Union has set out how to update its energy markets, including as regards the decarbonisation of markets for gas, in the communications of the Commission of 8 July 2020 entitled ‘Powering a climate-neutral economy: An EU Strategy for Energy System Integration’ and ‘A hydrogen strategy for a climate-neutral Europe’ (the ‘EU Hydrogen Strategy’), as well as in the European Parliament resolution of 10 July 2020 on a comprehensive European approach to energy storage . This Regulation should contribute to achieving the Union’s objective to cut greenhouse gas emissions at the same time as ensuring security of supply and the proper functioning of the internal markets for natural gas and hydrogen.

(4) This Regulation complements related Union policy and legislative instruments, in particular those proposed pursuant to the communication of the Commission of 11 December 2019 entitled the ‘European Green Deal’, such as Regulations (EU) 2023/857 , (EU) 2023/957 , (EU) 2023/1805 and (EU) 2023/2405 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Directives (EU) 2023/959 , (EU) 2023/1791 and (EU) 2023/2413 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which aim to incentivise the decarbonisation of the Union’s economy and ensure that it remains on a trajectory towards a climate-neutral Union by 2050, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/1119. The main objective of this Regulation is to enable and facilitate such transition towards climate neutrality by ensuring the ramp-up of a market for hydrogen and an efficient market for natural gas.

(5) This Regulation aims to facilitate the penetration of renewable gas and low-carbon gas and hydrogen into the energy system, enabling a shift away from fossil gas, and to allow renewable gas and low-carbon gas and hydrogen to play an important role in achieving the Union’s 2030 climate objectives and climate-neutrality by 2050. This Regulation also aims to set up a regulatory framework which enables and incentivises all market participants to shift away from fossil gas and plan their activities to avoid lock-in effects and aims to ensure a gradual and timely phase-out of fossil gas, in particular, in all relevant industrial sectors and for heating purposes.

(6) The EU Hydrogen Strategy recognises that, as Member States have different potential for the production of renewable hydrogen, an open and competitive internal market with unhindered cross-border trade has significant benefits for competition, affordability and security of supply. Moreover, the EU Hydrogen Strategy stresses that moving towards a liquid market with commodity-based hydrogen trading would facilitate entry of new producers and be beneficial for deeper integration with other energy carriers and would create viable price signals for investment decisions and operational decisions. The rules laid down in this Regulation should thus facilitate the emergence of markets for hydrogen, commodity-based hydrogen trading and liquid trading hubs. Any undue barriers, including disproportionate tariffs at interconnection points, should be eliminated by Member States. While recognising the inherent differences, existing rules that enabled efficient commercial operations and trading developed for the markets for electricity and natural gas should also be considered for a market for hydrogen. While this Regulation lays down general principles applicable to the operation of the market for hydrogen, it is appropriate to take account of the stage of development of that market when applying those principles.

(7) Supporting the coal and carbon-intensive regions in the phase-out of fossil fuels and phase-in of renewable energy is a key element of the just transition policy. That support has to be pursued consistently with the relevant legal framework, in particular the Just Transition Fund, established by Regulation (EU) 2021/1056 of the European Parliament and of the Council , which allows funding of technologies for renewable energy. The Commission plays a key role in ensuring such support to national policies aimed at progressively reducing existing coal and other solid fossil fuel generation and mining capacity. That process requires funding to address the social and economic impact, including the reskilling of the workforce for the purpose of the clean energy transition of regions that undergo structural change. The support to coal and carbon-intensive regions will need to take into account the specific goals, scopes and criteria of each relevant Union funding programme. The Just Transition Fund does not provide for funding of technologies other than renewable energy.

(8) Directive (EU) 2024/1788 of the European Parliament and of the Council provides for the possibility of a combined system operator. The rules laid down in this Regulation do not therefore require modification of the organisation of national systems that are consistent with the relevant provisions of that Directive.

(9) It is necessary to specify the criteria according to which tariffs for access to the network are determined, in order to ensure that they fully comply with the principle of non-discrimination and the needs of a properly functioning internal market, take fully into account the need for system integrity and reflect the actual costs incurred, insofar as such costs correspond to those of an efficient and structurally comparable network operator and are transparent, whilst including the appropriate return on investments, and enabling the integration of renewable gas and low-carbon gas. The rules on network access tariffs laid down in this Regulation are complemented by further rules on network access tariffs, in particular in the network codes and guidelines adopted pursuant to this Regulation, in Regulations (EU) 2022/869 and (EU) 2024/1787 of the European Parliament and of the Council and in Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Directive (EU) 2023/1791.

(10) It is, in general, most efficient to finance infrastructure by means of revenue obtained from the users of that infrastructure and to avoid cross-subsidies. Moreover, cross-subsidies would, in the case of regulated assets, be incompatible with the general principle of cost-reflective tariffs. In exceptional cases, cross-subsidies could nonetheless bring societal benefits, in particular during earlier phases of network development where booked capacity is low compared to technical capacity and uncertainty as to when future capacity demand will materialise is significant. Cross-subsidies could therefore contribute to reasonable and predictable tariffs for early network users and de-risk investments made by network operators, thus contributing to an investment climate that supports the decarbonisation objectives of the Union. As an alternative to the expected higher network tariffs that would otherwise have to be charged to early hydrogen network users, it should be possible for hydrogen network operators to spread network development costs over time by allowing Member States to provide for the possibility that future users pay part of the initial costs, by way of an inter-temporal cost allocation. Such inter-temporal cost allocation and its underlying methodology and features should be approved by the regulatory authority. It should be possible for Member States to accompany such mechanism by measures to cover the financial risk of hydrogen network operators, such as a State guarantee, provided that they comply with Article 107 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Where the financing of networks through network access tariffs paid by network users is not viable, the regulatory authority should be able to allow financial transfers between separate regulated services from natural gas and hydrogen networks, subject to certain conditions. Costs associated with feasibility studies related to the repurposing of natural gas networks to hydrogen networks should not be considered to be cross-subsidies. Cross-subsidies should not be financed by network users in other Member States and it is thus appropriate to collect financing for cross-subsidies only from exit points to final customers within the same Member State. Moreover, as cross-subsidies are exceptional, it should be ensured that they are proportional, transparent, limited in time and established under regulatory supervision, subject to notification to the Commission and to the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) established by Regulation (EU) 2019/942 of the European Parliament and of the Council .

(11) The use of market-based arrangements, such as auctions, to determine tariffs is to comply with Directive (EU) 2024/1788 and Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/459 .

(12) A common minimum set of third-party access services is necessary to provide a common minimum standard of access in practice throughout the Union, to ensure that third-party access services are sufficiently compatible and to allow the benefits accruing from a properly functioning internal market for natural gas to be exploited.