Brussels, 11/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is confident that a final agreement on a gas contract between Poland and Russia is in the pipeline. The deal would last until 2037 and increase the amount of gas Russian gas supplied to Poland each year to 10.3 billion cubic metres. It would also cover the transit of Russian gas through Poland to Western Europe until 2045. Polish and Russian experts and the European Commission will meet up in the next ten days to discuss amendments to the gas contract between Russia and Poland to ensure it meets EU rules, explained Marlene Holzer, on Monday 11 October 2010, a spokesperson for EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger. Holzer said the Commission was confident that a good compromise would be found for everyone - Poland, Russia and the Commission. She said that the most recent three-way meeting (last month) had enabled great progress to be made towards a final agreement.
As requested by Poland, the Commission analysed the contract negotiated last spring between Poland and Russia to protect the supply of Russian gas and transit through Poland. The Commission expressed reservations about EU rules, particularly access to fair tariffs for transit infrastructure (the Iamal gas pipeline) to all operators apart from its owner, EuRoPol Gaz, which is itself owned by Polish energy company PGNiG and Russian energy company Gazprom.
To avert any disruptions in Russian gas supplies for and through Poland over the next few weeks, it is crucial that a final agreement is reached because the current gas contract runs out around 20 October 2010.
ECR wants clear energy security guidelines - The chair of the ECR group at the European Parliament, Polish MEP Michal Kaminski, submitted a written question to the Commission on Monday about the gas contract in question and also energy security in the wider sense. He explained in a press release that the Commission was right to be concerned about the impact of the bilateral contract that could have wider consequences for energy and energy security policy across the EU. Kaminski has questions about the criteria issued by the Commission for agreeing to the new gas contract and wonders whether certain measures in the contract for the Nordstream gas pipeline would endanger the security of the EU's energy supply. He wants to know the criteria used by the Commission to assess bilateral energy contracts (E.H. trans fl)