January 16 (SeeNews) - The Energy Community said it has initiated a preliminary procedure against Serbia for the country's failure to comply with competition rules of the Energy Community in an agreement with Russia for natural gas supply.
The agreement is implemented via a contract between Gazprom Export and Yugorosgaz and concerns the supply of up to 5 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year from Russia to Serbia in the period between 2012 and 2021, the Energy Community said in a statement last week.
Under the agreement, the natural gas supplied on its basis is intended for use in the Serbian market, which constitutes a destination clause, infringing the competition rules of the Energy Community Treaty, the Energy Community said.
"It is against the obligations of the Energy Community and, if Serbia was a member of the EU, it would be against the rules of the European Union because it prevents gas trading. Gazprom has been agreeing on such clauses in the past, but it is all gone," Serbian public broadcaster Radio Televizija Srbije (RTS) quoted the director of the Energy Community, Janez Kopac, as saying on Friday.
The purpose of the initiated preliminary procedure is to give Serbia the opportunity to react to the allegation of non-compliance with Energy Community law within two months and to enable the Secretariat to establish the full background of the case, the institution said in the statement.
Serbia's Energy Ministry will consider the allegations in detail and will submit a timely answer to the Energy Community Secretariat, the Serbian government said in a statement on Friday.
The gas imports agreement was signed in October 2012 by the energy ministers of Russia and Serbia, Alexander Novak and Zorana Mihajlovic, respectively.
The Energy Community is an international organisation dealing with energy policy. Established by an international treaty in October 2005, the Energy Community brings together the European Union, on one hand, and countries from Southeastern Europe (SEE) and the Black Sea region. Serbia is a contracting party to the treaty, together with Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Yugorosgaz AD is among the biggest companies in SEE. You can download our SEE Top 100 ranking
here or subscribe to our free Top 100 newsletter
here