EU: Commission says Serbia’s TurkStream branch to impede competition

The European Union’s energy watchdog said on Thursday a planned section of Gazprom’s TurkStream pipeline set to carry Russian natural gas across Serbia to Europe will hurt competition in the region.

Serbian energy regulator AERS gave Gastrans the go-ahead this week to proceed with the project, exempting it from the EU’s Third Energy Package, a 2009 reform that sought to integrate the EU’s energy market and boost competition.

Gastrans is owned by Swiss-based South Stream Serbia, in which Russia’s Gazprom holds a 51% stake and Serbia’s gas monopoly Srbijagas the remainder.

The Energy Community, a body established by the EU to extend the bloc’s energy policy to would-be members, said by doing so, Serbia had missed a chance “to bring the project of this significance and magnitude in compliance with European rules”.