• Vestager to decide anti-trust case in next few weeks (Photo: ec.europa.eu) The papers included a 272-page Statement of Objections, dated 2015, four years after EU officials raided some 20 Gazprom offices in European cities in 2011, seizing more than 150,000 of the firm's files. They also included a five-page annex entitled Preliminary Assessment of the Commitments Proposed by Gazprom. The objections document said the Russian firm had hindered cross-border sales of gas in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia. It said the 'purpose was to segment the internal market along national borders' so that Gazprom could impose 'unfair pricing' in the region. It also said the Russian company had 'leveraged its dominance by conditioning gas supplies on obtaining certain non-related commitments' from clients, for instance by forcing Poland to yield control over the Yamal gas pipeline in northern Europe. The annex detailed how Gazprom used destination clauses, re-export bans, restrictions on metering stations, and refusals to change delivery points to 'segment' the EU states. It said Denmark, Finland, Italy, and the Netherlands had also suffered from 'significantly' excessive prices, but said the commission had decided to exclude this from its anti-trust proceeding.

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'Unfair and politically driven pricing (linked to the Russian Federation's policy in CEE) is the focal point of Gazprom corporate strategy,' the commission annex said, referring to Central and Eastern Europe. Vestager decision The old rap-sheet came out as EU anti-trust chief Margrethe Vestager prepares to decide, in April or May, whether to settle with Gazprom in light of subsequent pledges to mend its ways, or whether to impose fines, which could amount to billions of euros.

It also came out amid efforts by Vestager's colleague, energy commissioner Maros Sefcovic, to make sure that a new Gazprom pipeline to Germany, Nord Stream 2, does not lead to further Russian abuse. The expose of Gazprom's past sins added to political pressure for Vestager to take a hard line. 'Instead of sanctions amicable settlement Gazprom-EC?' , Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, a Polish MEP, tweeted in response to the documents on Wednesday. 'Heavy charges in contrast with indulgent reaction, naive belief in RU [Russia's] doubtful commitments, in total separation from Nord Stream 2 & RU aggression,' he added, making the point that Vestager should have addressed the issues of the new pipeline and of Russia's aggression in Ukraine, which began in 2014, in her deliberations. Nord Stream 2 Meanwhile, Nord Stream 2 is to concentrate 70 percent of Russian gas sales to the EU on the German route if it is built as planned in the Baltic Sea in 2019. Critics fear this will help Gazprom to halt transit via Ukraine and to cut off CEE states for political reasons, as well as to maintain the 'segmentation' of EU markets for the sake of higher prices.

Sefcovic, in a statement on Wednesday, welcomed remarks by German chancellor Angela Merkel, who said on Tuesday that Nord Stream 2's 'political' and 'strategic' aspects ought to be given more thought. 'I very much appreciate active involvement of Germany, and notably chancellor Angela Merkel, in finding a solution that would safeguard Ukraine's role of a gas transit country,' Sefcovic said.

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