Brussels, 23/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - Asked to respond to the criticisms of Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov about the European Commission's decision to address its grievances to Gazprom as part of the anti-trust investigation launched against the Russian gas company in 2012, the Commission reaffirmed on Wednesday 23 April that it was a competition case and not a political issue.
“Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said very clearly yesterday (Wednesday 22 April) that all companies that do business on the European market must respect European law”, the Commission's deputy spokesperson Mina Andreeva told press. “The grievances were sent to Gazprom and not to the Russian state. As far as we're concerned it's a competition case and we're going to handle it as such”, said Vestager's spokesperson, Ricardo Cardoso.
Earlier on Wednesday, Lavrov said that the EU's grievances against Gazprom were an “unacceptable” attempt to apply retroactively the rules of the third legislative package for the EU's internal energy market to the contracts concluded previously with the Russian gas company. “All contracts in effect now, that Gazprom signed with its partners, were signed with full respect of the legal regime that existed in the EU at the time. After the EU adopted the so-called third energy package (…) there have been attempts, and they continue now, to retrospectively, retroactively apply those requirement to old contracts as well. This is absolutely unacceptable”, Lavrov stated.
On Tuesday, the Commission entered into direct confrontation with Gazprom for abuse of dominant position on the European gas market, on the basis of an investigation launched in 2012, addressing its grievances to the Russian state-owned gas group closely linked with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. The Commission criticises Gazprom for anti-competitive practices in eight Eastern European countries, which are all very dependent on Russian gas (see EUROPE 11300). Gazprom will have 12 weeks (in other words until 15 July) to respond in writing or to ask for a hearing. Negotiation remains possible, but should there be continuing disagreement, Gazprom could be fined an amount equivalent to 10% of its turnover - in other words, €9 billion.
On Tuesday, Gazprom said it believed the Commission's grievances were “unfounded”, saying that it hoped for “an acceptable solution at intergovernmental level”. Putin's spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, said he hoped for a “compromise” between Gazprom and the Commission, stating that the Russian state was “ready to defend the interests” of the Russian gas company, “as its main shareholder”. “We hope that compromises will be found (…) Such disputes must definitely be settled through negotiations”, Peskov underlined, as quoted by Russian news agency Ria-Novosti. (Emmanuel Hagry)