Investing in European Regulated Gas Infrastructure: a Favourable Legal Environment?
The European gas industry, as well as EU policy makers and national energy regulators, are facing many challenges. One of them is how to guarantee gas supplies to and within Europe for the decades to come, within increasingly liberalised markets. To face this challenge, massive investments will be needed in gas infrastructure. While securing financing and the general state of the economy are typical drivers when making such investment decisions, there is an extra issue to be taken into account by potential investors in Europe, and that is EU energy regulation. Wim Vandenberghe and René Gonne, lawyers at Dechert LLP in Brussels, consider the EU regulatory framework that governs gas infrastructure investments with both its pitfalls and opportunities.
This article appeared in the 2012 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Gas Regulation; published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London.
