Energy Community Ministerial Council to consider implementing sanctions against Serbia on October 14 – Srbijagas not letting anyone into its pipes

The Ministerial Council of the Energy Community of the countries of Southeast Europe will deliberate on implementing sanctions against Serbia due to persistent refusal of Srbijagas to unbundle activities and enable competition in the gas market in the country in Sarajevo on October 14, stated the director of the Secretariat of the EC, Janez Kopac, on September 30.

He explained at the Assembly of the Republic Serbia that Srbijagas hadn't unbundled the gas transfer system from the commercial supplying, at the expense of consumers.

– Srbijagas is a big problem, as the key issue of unbundling activities of the system operator in the vertically integrated gas companies Srbijagas and Yugorosgaz hasn't yet been solved – Kopac said and reminded that the failure to unbundle activities was the reason that the ongoing offense procedure had been initiated in 2013.

Kopac says that the EC has so far implemented sanctions only once, against B&H.

The sanctions, as he says, could entail denial of access to various EU funds, revocation of the right to vote, compensation for expenses of cooperation with the EC and other measures, but international finance organizations might also stop cooperating with the country being sanctioned.

Kopac said that Serbia had been legally obliged to unbundle activities as far back as 2007 in line with the Second Energy Package.

– There are two more weeks to solve the issue. The persistent refusal of the management of Srbijagas to unbundle activities might lead to measures against Serbia being adopted this year. The unbundling would have great impact on consumers since they would get separate operators for gas and the transfer system, which would allow for competition to thrive – he emphasized.

Kopac emphasized that there was no competition in Serbia when it came to gas trading, since “Srbijagas won't let anyone inside its pipes”. He said that it was up to the Government of Serbia to fully implement its law and fulfill its international obligations, seeing how the government owns 100% of Srbijagas.

JP Srbijagas Novi Sad

Vlada Republike Srbije

Energy Community Southeast Europe

Ministerial Council of the Energy Community

Janez Kopac