Brussels, 21/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - According to the French daily newspaper La Tribune, the European Commission looks likely to rule against the French and German energy suppliers, GDF Suez and E.ON AG respectively, in the next few days, for an illegal agreement on the gas market. During investigations in 2006 into a number of European gas and electricity operators, the Commissioned agents discovered two letters, dating from 1975, in which Gaz de France apparently agreed not to sell gas in Germany and E.ON agreed to do the same for France, La Tribune reports. The two companies claim that these letters were signed as part of a gas pipeline project, the objective of which was to bring Russian gas to France via Germany, and with the objective of convincing the Russian company Gazprom that the gas pipeline was destined to be used only for transit purposes. GDF and E.ON both stressed that in the spirit of competition, each of them has had free rein in the other's national market since the early 2000s. A representative of DG Competition declined to comment on the affair, as is usual prior to official announcements, but confirmed that the dossier was "under assessment". In the event of a penalty, "GDF Suez will certainly appeal", La Tribune adds. (C.D./trans.fl)