(BRUSSELS) - The EU will unveil Wednesday plans to give it power to
examine energy contracts that European states sign with countries outside the
bloc, amid concerns about Europe's dependence on Russian gas.
Brussels is aiming to beef up its legal arsenal one year after launching a
landmark "energy union" strategy to secure supplies for the 28-nation
EU against a backdrop of tensions with Russia over Ukraine.
EU energy commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said in a speech late Monday
that the aim of the proposals "is simple: to prevent and mitigate possible
security of gas supply crises."
The European Union is already investigating whether Russian state energy
firm Gazprom has imposed unfair prices which breach the EU's fair trading
rules, in a move which further inflamed relations.
EU states imported 53 percent of their energy in 2014. A third of gas comes
from Russia alone and some newer eastern members are almost entirely reliant on
Moscow for energy.
Under the plans to be unveiled Wednesday, the European Commission wants to
be able to look at energy contracts between member states and non-EU countries
in advance to say whether they comply with the bloc's rules, Canete said.
Currently the Commission, the executive arm and regulator of the EU, can
only examine contracts after they have been signed.
- 'Improve transparency' -
Brussels also wants access to information on commercial contracts signed
between member states and companies in cases where the firm already has 40
percent or more of the market in that country, the source said.
Canete said the plans would "improve transparency" and would
allow the EU to "assess the security of supply situation" for energy.
The plan has widely been viewed as a way of stopping Gazprom from getting
too much market share, but the European source said it could also apply to
major producers such as Norway or Algeria.
"It's not about changing the contract but about obtaining information
-- not prices but pertinent elements that affect the security of supply,"
a European source added.
The Commission can't void commercial contracts, but seek to have the
European Court of Justice invalidate them if it can prove they breach EU laws.
Gazprom would inevitably be affected, though, with the Commission
previously accusing it of hindering competition in central and eastern European
gas markets where the company is by far the dominant supplier.
The countries involved in the EU probe are Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria,
the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia and Poland -- all former
Soviet-era satellites that have cast their future with the European Union, not
Moscow.
Gazprom rejects the accusations.
- Energy 'regions' -
Furthermore, Brussels wants to create nine new "energy regions"
within the EU, within which member states would help each other out in case of
an energy crisis, Canete said.
It will also suggest steps targeting the heating and air conditioning
sectors, which are the most energy-guzzling in the EU, accounting for half of
all European energy use and just under half of its gas consumption.
Overall, the aim remains the same as when the energy package was launched:
securing European energy supplies at a time of growing global insecurity and
making the continent less vulnerable.
Last year's plans for 'energy union' include completing the single market,
increasing energy security, boosting efficiency, reducing the use of fossil
fuels and increased research on new energy sources.
But efforts to centralise energy policy in Brussels are potentially
divisive as EU member states jealously guard the right to decide their own
energy mix.
Last last year there was a major row between Berlin and Rome over a
pipeline Germany plans to build -- Nordstream 2 -- to carry Russian gas under
the Baltic Sea.
Rome saw it as hypocritical that Berlin should pursue a major deal when the
rest of the bloc is being asked to sacrifice their interests to pursue
sanctions against Russia.
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