EU Energy Community disputing project of Serbia’s connecting to TurkStream – “Still no competition”

The Energy Community, the European Union’s regulatory body, has expressed regret over the fact that no progress has been made with the Serbian side when it comes to the key issues regarding the project of the construction of the new gas pipeline, by which Serbia should connect to TurkStream.

The issues primarily pertain to enabling competition at the new gas pipeline and the restructuring of the public enterprise Srbijagas, which has a monopoly on the gas market in Serbia, Radio Free Europe reports.

– Unfortunately, no progress has been made. The most recent meeting with officials of Serbia and Srbijagas was held in Belgrade in April 2019 – Predrag Grujicic, the head of the Sector for Gas at the Energy Community Secretariat, stated for Radio Free Europe, Fonet reports.

According to him, the issue of the lack of harmonization of the gas sector in Serbia with the legal acquis of the Energy Community had been considered and an all-encompassing action plan had been prepared, aiming to solve the question of separating the activities (transport and distribution of gas) of Srbijagas.

Unfortunately, the plan was not realized either. Grujicic said. After certain media in Serbia and Bulgaria reported that Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov had announced the signing of the agreement on the construction of the gas pipeline from Turkey, through Bulgaria, Serbia and Austria for September 5, Radio Free Europe sent questions regarding who the signees are, what the agreements pertain to and where the signing will take place, to the Ministry of Mining and Energy of Serbia and the director of Srbijagas, but received no answer.

The Energy Community has not been notified of the announced event either. When it comes to the gas market in Serbia, the Energy Community has been warning for years about the monopoly of Srbijagas and Gazprom and Serbia’s dependence of Russian gas, considering that Serbia imports gas exclusively from Russia, as shown by the data of the Energy Agency of Serbia.

Energy Community Secretariat Viena

Agencija za energetiku Republike Srbije

JP Srbijagas Novi Sad

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

Gazprom Moscow

Energy Community

Energy Agency of Serbia

TurkStream gas pipeline

Srbijagas

Ministry of Mining and Energy of Serbia

Gazprom

Boyko Borisov