The Council of the European Union has formally agreed its position on targeted amendments to the EU methane regulation, approving a one-year delay for specific monitoring and reporting rules governing imported crude oil, natural gas, and coal.
The decision follows recommendations outlined during the European Council summit on 15 and 16 October 2026, where EU leaders endorsed the European Commission’s 14 October proposal as a necessary measure to protect European energy security, stabilize fuel prices, and alleviate supply chain pressures stemming from ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Under the agreed text, member states maintained the core timeline adjustments proposed by the Commission, extending compliance deadlines across three regulatory milestones:
- Monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV): Importer MRV compliance deadlines for natural gas, crude oil, and coal shift from 1 January 2027 to 1 January 2028.
- Methane-intensity reporting: Mandatory intensity reporting for both EU producers and foreign importers moves from 5 August 2028 to 5 August 2029.
- Maximum intensity limits: Maximum allowed methane-intensity thresholds for importers and EU producers shift from 5 August 2030 to 5 August 2031.
The Council’s position mandates that the European Commission conduct an assessment by 30 September 2027 to evaluate whether the operational infrastructure required for import reporting is fully established. This includes verifying the availability of accredited third-party verifiers, EU data-transfer rules, and equivalent monitoring procedures within third-country supplier nations.
If any required technical elements remain incomplete, member states authorized the Commission to implement further delays to import monitoring rules through secondary legislation, or propose additional amendments should supply security threats persist.
The Council will now enter fast-track negotiations with the European Parliament to finalize the legislative text before the original 1 January 2027 monitoring deadline takes effect. First adopted in May 2024, the EU methane regulation targets a greenhouse gas responsible for approximately 30 per cent of global warming.
