Oxford Energy Podcast – OPAL Judgement

In this OIES podcast James Henderson talks to Katja Yafimava and Kim Talus about the recent judgement by EU Court of Justice (made on the 15th July 2021), which rejected a German appeal concerning the 2016 OPAL exemption decision and reinstated the 2009 OPAL exemption, under which Gazprom’s OPAL bookings are restricted by 50%. The judgment has specific consequences for the OPAL pipeline and Gazprom’s ability to flow gas to Europe, but also has broader implications for the use of the energy solidarity principle in many other cases concerning EU energy decisions. Katja and Kim discuss how this latest ruling has left a lot of unanswered questions about how the solidarity principle should be understood and applied in future, and they provide thoughts on why this issue has emerged and how it might be resolved.

By: OIES