Report: EU: Gazprom’s proposals to settle antitrust case sufficient

MOSCOW, Mar 21 (PRIME) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom’s proposals are sufficient to settle an antimonopoly dispute with the E.U., European Commission Vice President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said on Tuesday, as cited by Bloomberg.

The E.U. believes that obligations taken upon by Gazprom as a sufficient guarantee, he said.

The European Commission initiated an antimonopoly investigation against Gazprom in August 2012 and accused it of violating the E.U. competition rules in 2015. According to the authority, Gazprom restricted free supplies to Eastern E.U. countries by splitting gas markets, preventing diversification of supplies and setting unfair prices.

Earlier in March, the commission disclosed details of possible resolving of the antimonopoly dispute with Gazprom. The Russian company will have to remove a ban on trans-border resale to third parties, in particular, in Eastern Europe, from its gas contracts. Moreover, a price of Russian gas supplies to Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will be tied to benchmark, and the clients will receive a right to initiate a revision of the price if it differs from the benchmark. Moreover, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia will be able to receive gas through Baltic states and Bulgaria, and Gazprom will not demand compensation from Bulgaria for the scrapped South Stream project.

End