OREANDA-NEWS. September 09, 2015. The European Commission is planning to improve the transparency and compliance with EU law of agreements signed by EU countries with non-EU countries in the field of energy – and it is seeking your opinion on how best to do this.

To achieve better transparency and compliance, an information exchange mechanism on intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) in the field of energy between EU countries and non-EU countries was established in 2012 (the IGA Decision).

The main feature of this mechanism is that the Commission carries out compliance checks of IGAs after an EU country and a non-EU country have concluded such agreement.

While the current system is useful for receiving information on existing IGAs and for identifying problems posed by them in terms of their compatibility with EU law, it is however not sufficient to solve such problems. Under the European Commission's plans for Energy Union, and in an international situation where energy security is at the centre of the political debate, the Commission is considering reviewing the IGA Decision.

In this public consultation, the Commission would like to hear your ideas on how to boost transparency and compliance with EU law of IGAs, and how to make IGAs more able to improve the EU's energy security.

The consultation closes on 22 October 2015.