Euractiv: EU readies ‘pragmatic’ answer to Putin’s energy agenda
The European Commission will examine in "pragmatic way" Russia’s request to exempt its Nord Stream and South Stream gas pipelines from EU rules granting competitors access to the infrastructure, EurActiv has learned.
The development comes ahead of the 21 December EU summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Energy issues are expected to feature high on the agenda, the second this year after a June meeting in St. Petersburg.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on 14 December that his country would submit to the EU an updated draft agreement on transnational gas pipelines during the summit.
According to press reports, Novak said the draft agreement basically features only two major facilities - the Nord Stream gas pipeline with the OPAL and NEL pipelines, which connect Nord Stream with Europe's gas infrastructure, and the South Stream gas pipeline.
Russia expects that the agreement could form the basis for exempting its pipelines from the EU’s energy liberalisation rules, which grant energy companies access to infrastructure held by others, Novak said, according to the same reports.
Russia says the EU rules were discouraging Gazprom from investing in pipelines and gas storage facilities as they would grant others access to its infrastructure. That’s why Russia is reluctant to give “third parties” access to its pipelines and especially to South Stream, whose route largely coincides with that of Nabucco West, a planned pipeline which has the political support of Brussels and aims to diversify gas supplies from sources other than Russia.