MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) – An EU initiative to liberalize energy markets known as the Third Energy Package poses risks for investment in infrastructure aimed at ensuring the energy security of European countries, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Thursday.
“The EU’s Third Energy Package, adopted with the goal of liberalizing, diversifying import and increasing energy security, has instead generated risks of insufficient investment in energy infrastructure,” Novak said during the International Energy Forum’s 14th ministerial meeting.
The legislative package for an internal gas and electricity market in the European Union puts at risk “new cross-border energy projects” aimed at ensuring energy security by diversifying energy supplies routes, Novak added.
Russia earlier filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the package, under which companies which produce gas may not be owners of cross-country pipelines in the region.
The EU initiative will hamper the construction of the South Stream natural gas pipeline, proposed to cross the Black Sea to ship Russian gas to South and Central Europe, routing supply around the current transit network in Ukraine. For the onshore sections, Russia has signed intergovernmental agreements with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia and Croatia.
The construction of South Stream began in 2012 near the Russian city of Anapa, with the first gas to pass through the pipeline in the first quarter of 2016, with the route becoming fully operational in 2018.
EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said the EU has toughened its position toward South Stream’s construction amid the Ukrainian crisis.
The Third Energy Package, which entered into force in 2009, is an attempt to liberalize the EU’s regional electricity and gas market and to guard against vertical integration. According to the European Commission, this will boost competition and allow new players to enter the market and decrease energy prices.
Russia is against the move, saying that the European Commission is trying to control the market and make Russian energy giant Gazprom switch long-term contracts of Russian gas to the so-called spot rate.
