What is happening
The European Commission has put forward a proposal for the Council to set the European Union’s position on bringing EU gas-balancing rules into the European Economic Area, or EEA, Agreement. This is not yet an adopted Council decision: EUR-Lex records it as a Commission proposal dated 27 July 2026.21
The proposed EU position concerns a future decision by the EEA Joint CommitteeThe body that manages the EEA Agreement; it takes decisions by consensus., the body that manages the EEA AgreementThe agreement that extends Internal Market rights and obligations across the 30 EEA states described by the Commission.. That committee would amend Annex IV, the agreement’s energy annex, to incorporate Commission Regulation (EU) No 312/2014, titled the Network Code on Gas Balancing of Transmission NetworksThe EU regulation that the Commission proposes to incorporate into the EEA Agreement through this process..2
The Commission has attached a draft Joint Committee decision for the Council to use as the basis of the EU position. If the Council adopts its decision, the EU position should be presented to the Joint Committee at the earliest possible opportunity, according to the proposal.2
Why it matters
The Commission describes the EEA Agreement as providing equal Internal Market rights and obligations for citizens and economic operators across EU member states, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Incorporating an EU act into that agreement is the route proposed here for including the gas-balancing network code in its framework.2
The draft includes a limited exemption for the three EEA EFTA states—Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein—from the agreement’s homogeneity principleA principle in Article 1(1) of the EEA Agreement cited by the Commission. The supplied material does not further define its operation.. The Commission’s stated justification is that no relevant gas network exists. The proposal says this goes beyond a merely technical adaptation, so the Council must establish the Union position.2
What happens next
The Council would first need to adopt the proposed EU position. The EEA Joint Committee is then expected to consider its own decision; its decisions require consensus and, under the agreement, are binding on the parties. The Commission says the eventual Joint Committee act should be published in the Official Journal after adoption. The official record does not specify a current stage or next actor.21