Brussels, 02/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - Through the voice of its spokesperson Johannes Laitenberger, the European Commission indicated on Tuesday that it had “noted with concern” the nationalisation announced on Monday by Bolivian president Evo Morales of the Bolivian hydrocarbon fields. Laitenberger affirmed that, “we knew that measures to increase the role of the state in the Bolivian energy sector were going to be introduced by the new government of Mr Morales because that was part of his election programme”. Mr Laitenberger added, “that said, we were hoping that before the decision was taken, there would be a consultation process and discussions of such a proposal before its adoption”. He also asserted that “the Commission will be scrutinising the details of this decree”, which orders foreign companies to sign new exploitation contracts in the next six months under threat of expulsion “and to analyse its impact on Bolivia and investment that involves certain European companies” (the Spanish company, Repsol, Total from France, British Gas and British Petroleum from the United Kingdom. The spokesperson for the Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs explained that this decision would not have an impact “on the physical security of the Union's energy supplies”, because oil imports from Bolivia were “not significant'” and there were no gas imports from the country as Bolivia did not have natural liquid gas terminals. He warned that the decision of the Bolivian government could, however, “have a negative impact on markets that were already subject to strong price level tensions”.