Brussels, 22/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 22 September, the European Commission confirmed the news reported the day before by several media sources, that the Russian gas company Gazprom has sent it commitment proposals to respond to concerns of abuse of dominant position on the gas supply markets in several countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
The Commission will carefully analyse these proposals, said Ricardo Cardoso, spokesperson of the Brussels-based institution for issues related to competition. He said that Gazprom still had until Monday 28 September formally to respond to the statement of objections sent to it in April of this year (see EUROPE 11300). At the time, Gazprom reacted by dismissing the Commission's objections as “unfounded”.
About a year ago, the previous Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, took the decision to suspend discussions exploring the possibility of responding to the Commission's concerns by means of commitments, as provided for by the procedures in place (see EUROPE 11160). The current Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said last April that all options were open. “A solution may be found through negotiation, but other solutions are also a possibility”, she explained. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)