Members of the EU have no common stance on gas purchase

The European Commission has recognized that it has no consensus about one of the key ideas of the European energy strategy - a unified system of gas purchases from external suppliers. According to the vice-president of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič, it is supported by the eastern countries of the EU, but consumers in Western Europe stand for the preservation of the existing contractual arrangements. It will be difficult for Brussels to introduce a purchasing monopoly in the energy strategy, based on liberalization of markets, experts say, besides, as Gazprom, as suppliers from the United States can oppose such system.

The vice-chairman of the European Commission on Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič (he is in charge of, in particular, gas negotiations with Moscow) has reported that European countries haven’t been able to agree on common purchases of gas. Companies in Western Europe, where the market is more interconnected and market mechanisms "work well", are satisfied with the existing procurement system (individual contracts with suppliers). At the same time Central and Eastern Europe, where the countries have “more difficult negotiating position" and difficulties in signing of long-term contracts, adhere to the idea of common procurement. The main consumers of Russian gas don’t comment on the situation with unified purchase. Gazprom noted that the company took into account the EC’s plans to create the Energy Union, and reminded that the hub in Greece (the end point of the new project monopoly Turkish Stream, from which Gazprom proposed to European consumers to take gas) fitted into the concept of a single European gas transportation system.