On Tuesday 7 March, European Commission Vice-President with responsibility for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic welcomed the proposals from Gazprom in the EU’s anti-trust investigation into the Russian gas giant as “significant progress” towards conclusion of the investigation.
“I think now we have progress. The progress is that Gazprom sent the remedies that, I would say, are one of the last steps before the conclusion of the case”, the Russian agency Itar-Tass reports Sefcovic as saying on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference in Houston.
The Gazprom proposals “are being studied and considered now. Therefore, it is difficult to predict how exactly this will conclude”, the commissioner stated.
In October 2016, the Commission, which suspects Gazprom of abusing its dominant position in eight Central and Eastern European member states by closing the gas markets so as to be able to charge unfair prices, closed in on an amicable settlement which would avoid a heavy fine for the Russian gas company (see EUROPE 11655). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)