1. From 1 January 2027, importers shall demonstrate, and report in accordance with Article 27(1), to the competent authorities of the Member State in which they are established that the contracts concluded or renewed on or after 4 August 2024 for the supply of crude oil, natural gas or coal produced outside the Union cover only crude oil, natural gas or coal that is subject to monitoring, reporting and verification measures applied at the level of the producer that are equivalent to those set out in this Regulation.
2. For contracts concluded before 4 August 2024 for the supply of crude oil, natural gas or coal produced outside the Union, importers shall undertake all reasonable efforts to require that crude oil, natural gas or coal is subject to monitoring, reporting and verification measures applied at the level of the producer that are equivalent to those set out in this Regulation. Those efforts may include the amendment of those contracts.
From 1 January 2027, importers shall annually inform the competent authorities of the Member State in which they are established of the results of such efforts, as part of the information to be provided pursuant to in Article 27(1) and, in case of failure, provide sound justification to those competent authorities for such failure and set out the actions that they have undertaken as part of those efforts.
3. The Commission shall issue recommendations containing optional model clauses related to the information to be provided for the purposes of paragraphs 1 and 2, to be used by importers placing crude oil, natural gas and coal on the Union market in the process of modifying or renewing existing contracts or signing new contracts for the supply of crude oil, natural gas and coal.
4. The competent authorities of the Member States shall protect the confidentiality of the information received from importers under this Article, in accordance with Union law. The competent authorities shall provide that information to the Commission which shall protect the confidentiality of such information, in accordance with Union law.
5. For the purposes of this Article, monitoring, reporting and verification measures shall be considered to be equivalent to those set out in this Regulation in the following cases:
(a)
crude oil, natural gas and coal are subject to independent third party verification equivalent to that set out in Articles 8 and 9 and the producer established in a third country applies:
(i)
for crude oil and natural gas, monitoring and reporting measures ensuring quantification of methane emissions equivalent to those set out in Article 12 or monitoring and reporting at OGMP 2.0 level 5;
(ii)
for coal, monitoring and reporting measures equivalent to those set out in Article 20; or
(b)
the third country has in place and applies to producers and exporters established in that third country and supplying crude oil, natural gas or coal to the Union market a regulatory framework on monitoring, reporting and verification that is at least equivalent to that applied in the Union; in particular, the third country has demonstrated that those monitoring and reporting requirements ensure at least source- and site-level quantification and regular reporting equivalent to those set out in Article 12, for crude oil and natural gas, and in Article 20, for coal, and that effective verification by an independent third party, equivalent to that set out in Articles 8 and 9, as well as effective supervision and enforcement are in place.
6. For the purposes of paragraph 5, point (b), the Commission shall set out, by means of an implementing act, the procedure and requirements concerning evidence to be provided by a third country for establishing equivalence. That implementing act shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 35(3).
The procedure of establishing equivalence may be initiated on the request of a third country or by the Commission.
The Commission shall actively engage with all third countries exporting crude oil, natural gas or coal to the Union market to obtain their agreement to initiate such a procedure, taking into account the quantity imported from those third countries and their potential for reducing their methane emissions.
Equivalence shall be established by the Commission, by means of implementing acts for each relevant third country, only where the third country fulfils all the conditions set out in paragraph 5, point (b), of this Article and all required evidence is provided. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 35(3) of this Regulation. The Commission shall refrain from adopting such implementing acts where their adoption would circumvent restrictive measures adopted under Article 215 TFEU restricting the import of crude oil, natural gas or coal.
Equivalence may be revoked at any time by the Commission, by means of an implementing act, where the third country no longer complies, in law or in practice, with the conditions set out in paragraph 5, point (b), of this Article during a period of at least 12 months. That implementing act shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 35(3). Prior to adopting that implementing act, the Commission shall notify the third country of its concerns and give it an opportunity to state its views.
When preparing the implementing acts referred to in this paragraph, the Commission shall inform the Coordination Group for oil and petroleum products, established by Council Directive 2009/119/EC (28), the Gas Coordination Group, established by Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 of the European Parliament and of the Council (29), and the Electricity Coordination Group, established by the Commission, as well as other relevant stakeholders. Those implementing acts shall enter into force not earlier than 30 calendar days following the date of their adoption.
7. Importers shall be exempt from the reporting obligations set out in paragraphs 1 and 2 where they import crude oil, natural gas or coal from a third country for which equivalence has been established in accordance with paragraph 6.
8. From 4 August 2024, where appropriate and subject to the applicable procedures, the Commission shall propose and aim for the Union to enter into cooperation frameworks with third countries from which the Union imports crude oil, natural gas or coal to support them in establishing a monitoring, reporting and verification system equivalent to that established in this Regulation. The Commission shall not recommend entering into such cooperation frameworks where those frameworks would circumvent restrictive measures adopted under Article 215 TFEU on the import of crude oil, natural gas or coal.