EU Commission Says Took Note of Eurogas’ Opposition to Gas Directive Changes

VIENNA (Sputnik) - The European Commission has reviewed the position of Eurogas, an industry association comprising the EU's largest gas companies, concerning possible amendments to the EU Gas Directive, Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, director of the EU Commission's Internal Energy Market, said on Tuesday.

"We have analyzed it [Eurogas’ recommendation] and some questions are pertinent and they will be answered… A lot of arguments that have been put forward are completely unacceptable. They do not even need a reply. But I am not going to go into details," Borchardt told reporters on the sidelines of the European Gas Conference.

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To become law, amendments to the EU Gas Directive must be approved by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament.

In November, the European Commission proposed amendments to the EU Gas Directive to ensure that all EU rules, including third-party access, tariffs, partial ownership and transparency, extend to offshore portions of import pipeline. Eurogas, in turn, recommended in early January suspending the adoption of the amendments until market participants discuss them. According to Eurogas, the amendments would likely have adverse and negative consequences, create risks for EU energy security, impact the companies' investments in infrastructure and affect trade and geopolitical relations between the European Union and its partners.