Brussels, 08/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 8 July, the Commission invited comments from interested parties on commitments offered by the French energy company GDF Suez to make gas imports to France more competitive. Comments should be presented to the Commission within two months of the publication in the EU Official Journal (as from 9 July). The Commission suspected that GDF Suez might be closing off competitors from access to gas import capacity into France. Whilst not acknowledging any infringement, GDF Suez proposed to address the Commission's concerns and resolve the problem. Should the market test indicate that the proposals remedy the Commission's concerns, the Commission will accept the proposals and make them legally binding.
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes explained to the press that the problem particularly involved, “access to LNG terminals (liquid natural gas) and pipelines”. The Commission's investigation demonstrated that GDF has long term reserves throughout most of the gas import capacity in France. The authorities see this as an obstacle to fair competition because these GDF Suez capacity reserves largely close off access to the French gas market to other potential gas suppliers, even if they are competitive. Under the proposed commitments, GDF Suez would immediately release a large share of its long-term reservations of gas import capacity into France, and would then continue to reduce its share of these reservations to below 50%.
This case is totally separate from the fines imposed this Wednesday on GDF Suez and its German counterpart E.ON for an illegal agreement (see other article). (C.D./transl.rh)