ANTIC: I hope that the Energy Community won't impose sanctions due to Srbijagas

Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antic said today that he hoped that the Energy Community wouldn't impose sanctions on Serbia and that he would notify the organization on reorganization activities in Srbijagas in line with the Community's regulations by the end of the day.

He said that he would write a letter to the Secretariat of the Energy Community in which he would say that the Government of Serbia had given support to the reorganization of Srbijagas and that a lot of work had already been done.

– Some things still remain to be done and I hope that the Energy Community will show some understanding. I'm going to Sarajevo for a ministerial meeting and I hope there won't be sanctions imposed on us – Antic said.

The director of the Secretariat of the Energy Community, Janez Kopac, stated earlier that the Ministerial Council of the EC would be deliberating, on October 14, whether to impose sanctions on Serbia due to, as he said, persistent refusal of Srbijagas to unbundle activities of transport and distribution of gas and enable competition in the market.

The sanctions are imposed due to a big delay in bringing the regulation in line with those of the EU being implemented within the Energy Community and, in the worst case, can lead to the denial of access to the EU energy funds.

According to Article 91, a party, the Secretariat or or the Regulatory Authority, may request from the Ministerial Council to determine the existence of a serious or persistent breach of of obligations under the Treaty and to suspend certain rights of the member-state. This includes the possibility of suspension of the voting right and exclusion from the meetings or mechanisms under the Treaty, and the Ministerial Council can later revoke the decision on suspension by majority vote.

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

Vlada Republike Srbije

JP Srbijagas Novi Sad

Aleksandar Antic

Energy Community

Srbijagas reorganization

Janez Kopac

EC Treaty

Ministerial Council of the EC