EU reexamines South Stream agreement with Serbia

The Energy Community Secretariat of the European Union submitted a request to the EU Council to examine the legality of bilateral agreements on the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline concluded between Serbia and the Russian Gazprom company, Tanjug news agency has reported.

The Secretariat has resorted to this measure after Serbia failed to respond to repeated requests from Brussels to inspect the operations of Srbijagas and Yugorosgas, Serbia's two transmission system operators in the South Stream section through Serbia, Energy Community Secretariat said in a release on Wednesday (23 April 2014).

According to the Energy Community, the agreements between Serbia and Gazprom do not comply with the so-called unbundling rules in force in the EU, which prevent one company from being both a producer and a supplier of natural gas.

After Belgrade ignored its objections, the Secretariat requested opinion from the EU Council, the release reads.

If Serbia is found to be in breach of the rules, the Council may take a political decision on further steps regarding this issue.

The EU's Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger warned on several occasions that Gazprom's bilateral agreements with several countries including Serbia do not comply with the EU regulations and need to be renegotiated.

This topic was planned to be on the agenda of the EU-Russia summit in Moscow, but all energy negotiations have been postponed due to the crisis in Ukraine.