South East and Eastern European gas security improves as storage rules advance, new report finds
The Energy Community Secretariat’s 2026 Gas Storage Report, published today, finds that gas security in South East and Eastern Europe is improving as EU aspirants advance implementation of EU-aligned storage rules and wider energy security frameworks. Under the Energy Community Treaty, Contracting Parties have committed to ensuring that the region enters each winter with sufficient reserves, and can weather supply shortages during energy crises. Contracting Parties with underground gas storage — Serbia and Ukraine — must ensure their storage facilities reach required filling levels ahead of winter. Contracting Parties with functioning gas markets but no storage – North Macedonia, Moldova, and Bosnia and Herzegovina -- are expected to secure access to gas stored abroad, equivalent to at least 15% of average annual consumption over the last five years.*
According to the report, both Ukraine and Serbia exceeded their binding 2025 filling targets and met their early-2026 intermediate trajectories.
Serbia’s binding target is 90%, as is Ukraine’s, which additionally benefits from the multiplier of 35% of five-year average annual consumption because its storage capacity is very large relative to demand. Serbia’s only storage facility, Banatski Dvor reached 58% on 1 February and 44% on 1 May 2026.
Notably, however, Serbia has yet to certify the storage system operator, a step designed to verify that nothing undermines the operator’s incentive or ability to fill the facility when needed. Meanwhile, Ukraine, despite continued Russian attacks, maintained supply to domestic customers throughout last heating season and exceeded its 1 May 2026 target. Completing EU-legal alignment and strengthening the long-term governance of Ukraine's storage system is particularly important given the scale of its capacity. This makes it a strategic component of Europe’s wider security-of-supply architecture.
Finally, Moldova is emerging as the model for countries throughout Europe without storage. The Contracting Party has built a two-layer system: emergency security stocks, which can only be used in crisis situations, and commercial stocks established under the Storage Regulation. Together, these stocks exceeded 20% of Moldova’s annual consumption. Significantly, Moldova strengthened its commercial stock system in 2025 by expanding the obligation from one supplier to all active retail gas suppliers, making gas reserves a shared market responsibility. Moldova’s regulator has approved around 140 million m³ of commercial gas stocks to be in place by 1 November 2026 — a substantial winter buffer, equivalent to around 15% of average annual consumption for consumers connected to licensed gas networks.
Progress is also visible in North Macedonia, which has taken legal and planning steps toward storage preparedness, including transposing the Storage Regulation and finalising its Risk Assessment. Its cross-border storage arrangement with Bulgaria, however, is not yet operational in practice.
* Albania, Kosovo* and Montenegro currently have no gas markets and are therefore not covered by the report’s storage obligations. Georgia has a functioning gas market but is exempt until it becomes interconnected with another Energy Community Contracting Party*