Energy Union of Europe against Russia

The European Commission intends to take control over energy purchases by European countries. The creation of a single energy market and the transition to centralized procurement will allow it to achieve better prices and to reduce the Europe's dependence on Russian companies, European officials say. First of all it concerns the purchase of gas - the issue of procurement within the Energy Union will be discussed at the next EU summit in Brussels on March 19-20.

Now the European Commission is responsible only for how gas pipelines are built in Europe, and the internal energy market is functioning - the rules of this market are described in the Third Energy Package. The EC has no right to conduct international negotiations for new contracts and their revisions, it is the prerogative of the EU member states and companies that operate on the energy market, explains director of the National Energy Institute Sergey Pravosudov.

Not everybody is ready to abandon the existing procurement system in favor of the centralization - in fact, it would entail not only a significant loss of sovereignty, but also quite tangible losses for a number of countries and companies. Today, the contract price varies for each of the countries depending on a variety of conditions. For example, Gazprom provides Germany significant discounts for volume of supply and the presence of joint German-Russian enterprises. It is noteworthy that the idea of ​​centralized procurement was suggested by Donald Tusk, the former Prime Minister of Poland, which pays one of the highest prices in the EU for Russian gas. In this case, there are obvious double standards: positioning itself as a fighter against the energy monopoly, the EC itself is going to become the sole buyer. "The creation of a single EU procurement center in the energy sector is against the rules of the free market," - says head of the analytical department of the National Energy Security Alexander Pasechnik.

However, the creation of the Energy Union pursues, first of all, political goals. In particular, it must deprive Russia of influence on individual countries, says Tusk, renowned for his anti-Russian position, now the President of the European Council. "One buyer of gas is an old dream of the EU, which has become urgent now as a lever of pressure on Russia, - said deputy general director for investments of Univer Capital Dmitry Alexandrov. In addition, the centralization of the purchases strengthens the power of the European Commission over the EU member states. Firstly, the EC would get access to information about the prices and sizes of specific supplies, which is closed today. Secondly, it gets legal grounds to achieve the desired solutions from national governments - previously only political pressure could be used for this, as, for example, to force Bulgaria to freeze the construction of South Stream.