Today, the European Parliament voted to delay the EU Methane Regulation’s (EUMR) implementation.

What happened today?

In the Parliament, a group of right wing MEPs have spearheaded the push for a three-year delay to the Methane Regulation, backed by domestic oil & gas producers and pipeline operators. This ran counter to support for shorter delays from governments in Paris and Berlin, as well as the one-year delay proposal put forward by the Commission and backed by its president, Ursula Von Der Leyen. In the Council, countries will have to find common ground amidst pressure from different sides.

The European Parliament today voted through a delay with many nuances:

• The final deadline is pushed back by one year, from 2030 to 2031. This is the date by which the whole regulation is meant to be in place. Its centrepiece is an import standard: a limit on methane intensity, meaning how much methane is emitted for each unit of gas produced and delivered. From 2031, gas imported into the EU that exceeds this limit will lead to penalties. The delay gives companies and governments an extra year before the regulation’s toughest measure takes effect.
• But Parliament wants to let companies off the hook on accountability for three years. Before the import standard applies, companies need to monitor and report their methane emissions. This covers both gas produced within the EU and gas imported from abroad. Companies were originally due to do this from January 2027, and that date has now moved to 2030. Framed as relief for companies, observers however warn that such a long delay was unnecessary and sends the wrong signal to responsible companies that had already taken the steps towards implementing the systems (see below).
• A twist to avoid Russian gas: Parliament excluded sanctioned countries from the three year delay, meaning the regulation will apply to these already from 2027. This was added to support the EU’s phase-out of Russian supply after concerns that it is still making its way into the EU market due to a lack of monitoring.

How did we get here?

Ahead of this, oil and gas companies have been claiming that implementing EUMR on-schedule would aggravate an already acute energy crisis by tightening oil supply chain rules. But while industry expresses concerns that Europe’s energy infrastructure won’t be ready to comply with EUMR by January, the latest data from Rystad shows that there will be enough compliant-ready gas supply available in 2027 to exceed the EU’s total import demand by three times. Moreover, by reducing gas wasted in supply chains today, implementing EUMR on-schedule in 2027 would actually increase Europe’s supply by 37 billion cubic metres of gas, equivalent to France’s total annual natural gas consumption. 

Dr. Léa Pilsner, Director for Energy Policy, Environmental Defense Fund Europe, said in reaction to today’s vote in Parliament: 

“Proposals of delays seem to be based on the assumption that a delay would ease pressure on the energy supply crunch. But the available evidence does not support this. In fact, fixing methane leaks would also help us avoid wasting huge amounts of gas - approximately 37 billion cubic metres in three years,¹ strengthening available global supply. In addition, the costs of the regulation are negligible - our data shows just €0.14 to €2.82 per year per household.² Every year the EUMR is delayed is another year where gas is wasted.

Today we saw a disappointing decision in the European Parliament, letting companies off the hook for another three years. We know companies struggle to measure the right amount of emissions until there are strong systems in place, so this delay really doesn’t help them get ready. The European Council still has a chance to bring forward this deadline which would be the sensible thing to do.”

Notes to editors:

¹ DIW Econ estimates that a three-year delay could result in 25 Mt of methane reductions lost by 2050. At standard conditions (15°C and atmospheric pressure), methane has a density of approximately 0.68 kg/m³. Converting 25 Mt of methane using this density gives approximately 36.8 billion cubic metres (bcm), rounded to 37 bcm.

² Carbon Limits data shows compliance with MRV requirements would cost approximately USD 4,000–80,000 per petajoule of energy produced. According to official Eurostat statistics (Gas prices for household consumers, calculated using 2024 consumption data and second-half 2025 prices), the weighted average natural gas price for household consumers across the EU was €122.80 per MWh. Based on an average EU residential gas consumption profile of 11.0 MWh per year (~11,000 kWh/year for gas-heated households), passing on 100% of MRV compliance costs to consumers could only result in an annual bill increase of between €0.14 and €2.82 per year (or €0.01 to €0.23 per month). Relative to the €122.80/MWh baseline, this represents a potential expenditure increase of 0.01% to 0.21% (less than a quarter of one percent) on an average household gas bill.