The Energy Community, a regulatory body of the European Union, regretted that no progress had been made with the Serbian side on key issues related to the construction of the new gas pipeline, which Serbia would join in Turkish Stream.
These issues, first of all, relate to enabling competition in the new pipeline construction and restructuring the public company “Srbijagas”, which holds a monopoly in the gas market in Serbia, Radio Free Europe reports.
“Unfortunately, no progress was made. The last meeting with officials of Serbia and “Srbijagas” was held in Belgrade in April 2019, “Predrag Grujicic, head of the Gas Sector at the Secretariat of the Energy Community, told Radio Free Europe.
According to him, the issue of non-compliance of the gas sector in Serbia with the legal issues was considered and a comprehensive action plan was prepared on how to resolve the issue of separation of activities (gas transport and distribution) of “Srbijagas”.
Unfortunately, that plan did not materialize either, Grujicic said. After some news media in Serbia and Bulgaria reported that Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov had announced the signing of a gas pipeline contract from Turkey via Bulgaria, Serbia and Austria on September 5, Radio Free Europe sent questions about who the contractors are to the Ministry of Mining and Energy of Serbia and the director of the public company Srbijagas, but they did not receive a reply.
The event was not reported to the Energy Community either. Regarding the gas market in Serbia, the Energy Community warned years ago about the monopolistic position of “Srbijagas” and “Gasprom” and Serbia’s dependence on Russian gas, bearing in mind the fact that Serbia imports gas exclusively from Russia, as shown by Agency for energy of Serbia.
Source: dnevnik.rs
