Poland's state-run gas company PGNIG filed a complaint to the European Court of Justice against a European Commission decision exempting the OPAL gas pipeline from the obligation of applying the third party access rule, the company announced on Monday.
The European Commission third party rule stipulates that gas and electricity transmission system operators as well as operators of storage or LNG facilities are required to grant energy companies non-discriminatory access to their infrastructure and must offer the same service to different users under identical contractual conditions.
The OPAL pipeline provides the mainland extension of Russia's Nord Stream I pipeline across Germany with 36 billion cubic meters (bcm) of capacity per year.
The company said that this is the first range of legal measures PGNIG intends to take in this matter against the EC and the Bundesnetzagentur, the German energy market regulator.
"The decisions and the mode of proceedings by the EC and the Bundesnetzagentur are without precedence," said CEO of PGNIG Piotr Wozniak.
"They are destroying the development of the competitive gas market and expanding the privileges enjoyed by Gazprom, which can in turn lead to the Russian company acquiring a monopoly in the supply of gas to Central and Eastern Europe. This is a serious threat to the security of gas deliveries to Poland and the entire region," he stressed.
PGNIG said in October that it would file a complaint, and prior to taking the necessary legal steps, the company appealed to the EC to publish the decision on the OPAL pipeline taken on Oct. 28.
However, the EC as yet has to publicly disclose the content of that decision.
"The Bundesnetzagentur has also failed to respond to the application made by PGNIG for access to the decision as a matter of public record," noted PGNIG.
(Anadolu Agency)
