An employee of Russian gas giant Gazprom, February 18, 2015 (AFP / File / ANDREY GOLOVANOV)
The European Commission is preparing to go on the offensive against the Russian gas giant Gazprom, launching Wednesday a procedure to impede competition, risking a little more tender relations with Moscow, according to several sources familiar with the matter.
A week after will be taken to the US Internet giant Google, the European Commission will send to the Russian group a “statement of objections” he does on Monday from two sources close the file. Services of the competition the Commission have refused to comment.
“We monitor if customers get the best price or if a dominant position in the company uses his strength to charge different prices to customer “, said Monday the European Commissioner for the record, Margrethe Vestager in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
“It means a lot if a country pays more for its gas than it should,” said the Commissioner, but confirm the information on Gazprom.
“Communication grievances “follows an investigation opened by Brussels in September 2012. The Commission suspects the Russian giant hamper the free flow of gas between European States, have prevented the diversification of gas distribution and have imposed price unfair to its customers by linking the price of gas and oil.
These practices Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia and Poland
-. A fine of 10% of sales Business –
If the Commission concludes that there is an infringement, it can impose a fine of up to 10% of the global turnover of the target company. Sales of Gazprom amounted to 5.249 billion rubles (€ 93 billion during Monday) in 2013. The financial results of the Russian public company for 2014 have not yet been published.
The decision must be formalized Wednesday at the weekly meeting of European Commissioners. Last Wednesday, Ms. Vestager, launched proceedings against the internet giant Google for abuse of dominant position, a measure that had caused a stir after nearly five years of investigation.
A source close with the matter told AFP that the decision to initiate a procedure against Gazprom “is not yet unanimity” within the EU executive.
The risk highlighted is that of a political reaction very hard from Moscow, because the group, a real gas arms of Russia, said last week the European Commission that he wanted a friendly settlement, told AFP a Another source close to the case.
In 2014, the European Commission had already reminded Gazprom compliance with EU rules on public procurement for the South Stream gas pipeline project. Russia had reacted announced in December that it was abandoning the project, meant to diversify gas routes to the EU, bypassing Ukraine.
Gazprom’s ambition to build a new pipeline to Turkey to compensate for the abandonment of the South Stream project, but Turkey and Russia have not yet signed a definitive agreement on this project. Greece expressed already interested in an extension of the pipeline on its territory.
The head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, is to visit Athens on Tuesday to discuss with Prime Minister Tsipras of “energy issues”.
Rumours suggest a draft agreement between Athens and Moscow for the extension to Greece of the “Turkish stream”. “We have several different energy issues to be addressed as the pipeline but also the price of gas,” he told AFP a spokesman of the Greek Ministry without confirming the signing of an agreement.
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