EC: No concessions to South Stream

The European Commission (EC) has not given up its position that South Stream agreements signed between six members of the EU and Russia should be revised because they are contrary to EU regulations, while Serbia, which has a similar agreement with Russia and is not a member of the EU, will be dealt with by the European Energy Community, people at the EC headquarters told Tanjug news agency.

- Our position remains that interstate agreements on South Stream are not in compliance with European regulations and should be either revised or adapted - Sabine Berger, the spokesperson of the European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger, told Tanjug.

By saying this, she denied media reports that the EC gave up the attempt to revise bilateral agreements on this gas pipeline signed with six EU members, which allegedly happened at the EU-Russia Summit on Tuesday in Brussels. These agreements were earlier assessed as contrary to environmental regulations as well as EU regulations adopted as part of the so-called Third Energy Package which stipulate that one company cannot be an exclusive importer and a gas distributor at the same time.

People at the EC headquarters told Tanjug that Serbia would be dealt with by the European Energy Community because Serbia was not a member of the EU and the Third Energy Package did not apply to it.

According to the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) that Serbia has signed and ratified, the Third Energy Package should come into effect in 2015, and the EC's position is that the country's South Stream agreements should have been aligned with EU rules by then.