The hydrogen and gas decarbonization package introduces a legal framework for hydrogen transmission. To enable a hydrogen market in Europe as a key building block on the way to a climate neutral economy, a cross-border pipeline infrastructure must be constructed, which demands harmonized regulation. This article analyses how far the new legal framework strikes a balance between flexibility, which is needed to ramp up a new infrastructure, legal predictability, which is needed to facilitate long-term investments and strategies, and harmonization, which is needed for cross-border energy infrastructure. The analysis is based on a general discussion of flexibility, predictability and harmonization in the context of hydrogen transmission and the examination of core rules in various areas of network regulation, operator duties, planning and more. It identifies major trends and mechanisms to enable flexibility or implement predictable harmonization. In particular, the transitional period until 2032, the special financing mechanisms for hydrogen transmission and the rules on repurposing existing natural gas pipelines are discussed. The analysis concludes that the new legal framework is based on a coherent approach, which seeks a balance between flexibility, harmonization and predictability. The timeframe and the connection to the natural gas regime limit flexibility.
European Energy and Environmental Law Review