Ecologic Institute supports Climate Action Network Europe by providing expert input on the penalty regime for violations of the EU Methane Emissions Regulation (EU-MER).

Like all EU regulations, the EU-MER is directly applicable in every Member State, and all covered entities are required to comply. However, although Article 33 of the EU-MER sets out detailed principles for the sanctions regime, Member States still retain significant discretion when adopting their own penalty rules. Missing or non-compliant penalty rules at the Member States level may distort the internal market and hinder the correct implementation of the Regulation resulting in excessive greenhouse gas emissions.

At a workshop in Brussels, an online lecture and in a report published in December 2025, our expert Raffaele Piria shared insights on

• the principles underpinning the EU-MER sanction regime
• why claims by fossil energy groups that the EU-MER creates "unmanageable liability" for EU fossil-fuel importers – through fines of up to 20% of annual turnover – are unfounded scaremongering
• how selected Member States (Czechia, Denmark, Hungary, Italy and Romania) have implemented, or pan to implement, these rules.
• how the risk of an "enforcement shopping" can be counteracted