European Commission Vice-President with responsibility for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said on Tuesday 7 March that he expected the General Court of the EU, which is the competent court in matters of this sort, to deliver its ruling in the case brought by Polish gas company PGNiG on the granting of additional OPAL gas pipeline capacity to Gazprom before the end of April.
“Usually such issues are considered for several weeks. So, we will see what the court will decide before the next round of auctions, which, I think, will take place in March-April”, Sefcovic is reported by Russian agency Itear-TASS as saying on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference in Houston.
PGNiG lodged a complaint with the General Court on 4 December 2016 (see EUROPE 11682) challenging the legality of the Commission decision of 28 October 2016 (see EUROPE 11657) granting Russian gas company Gazprom more capacity in the German OPAL gas pipeline, which links into the German-Russian Nord Stream pipeline which runs under the Baltic Sea and along Germany’s eastern border to the Czech Republic. On 23 December 2016, after receiving the complaint, the Court suspended implementation of the Commission decision. Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz asked the General Court on 1 March for leave to intervene in the case brought by PGNiG (see EUROPE 11737). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)