A dedicated group of EU gas experts drawn together to scrutinise the way that EU gas and gas derivatives markets work in practice has presented its analysis in a special report published by the Commission. The report, prepared by the Gas Market Task Force (GMTF), concludes that both markets are functioning well and suggests potential further work to ensure that European gas and gas derivatives markets continue delivering for European businesses and consumers. The Task Force brings together officials from the European Commission and the 2 EU Agencies responsible for regulating and overseeing gas and gas derivatives markets – the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). In its report, the GMTF sets out its findings in several areas, such as the monitoring of trends in algorithmic trading, the development of new market monitoring tools, the implementation of REMIT, certain rules governing the trading of commodity derivatives trading (position management controls, position reporting), as well as in the area of data sharing and cooperation between energy and financial supervisory authorities.
Background
The GMTF was established in February 2025, as part of the Clean Industrial Deal and the Affordable Energy Action Plan. It was tasked with scrutinising the functioning of EU gas and gas derivatives markets in a comprehensive manner with a view to identifying possible shortcomings and proposing actions to address those. This was seen in particular in the context of the 2024 Draghi report on competitiveness and the central role that gas played in the energy crisis linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In 2025, the Commission also launched a broad stakeholder consultation on commodity derivatives markets, including gas derivatives markets, to assess the need for further legislative changes to ensure full and seamless regulatory oversight, strengthen the alignment between energy and financial market rules – notably the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and the Regulation on wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT) – and reduce the administrative burden on companies trading energy products on financial markets, including through single-reporting mechanisms. The results of this consultation informed the report of the GMTF.
