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    Carnegie Europe: The Slow Erosion of Gazprom’s Grip Over Europe

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Summary

A senior associate for Carnegie Europe analyses developments in Europe that are weakening Gazprom's grip on the gas market in Europe

by: Erica Mills

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Carnegie Europe: The Slow Erosion of Gazprom’s Grip Over Europe

Before Donald Tusk became president of the European Council, the former Polish prime minister had already begun campaigning for a European energy union.

The idea was that the European Union would establish a single market for electricity and gas and would build interconnectors to enable energy to flow between networks. Above all, Tusk wanted transparency over gas supply contracts so that Gazprom, Russia’s giant state-owned gas company, could not arbitrarily set prices for its European customers and thus wield political power over them.

On March 19, after a summit of EU leaders, Tusk won a small victory. “All leaders agreed to reinforce transparency in the gas market so suppliers cannot abuse their position to break EU law and reduce our energy security,” Tusk said.

But the biggest prize—the disclosure of contracts—was omitted from the leaders’ final text. Instead, the summit conclusions stated: “As regards commercial gas supply contracts, the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information needs to be guaranteed.”
 
Read the full article HERE.

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