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The director of the Secretariat of the Energy Community (EC), Janez Kopac, said that the Council of Ministers would consider the violation of the EC rules by Serbia on Thursday, December 17, because it did not separate the activities of the operator Jugorosgaz Transport gas station.
He told Beta that it was a “serious case of violation of the EC energy law and that Jugorosgaz Transport, a Srbijagas subsidiary, was not certified in accordance with the Third Package.”
“The Srbijagas separation process is not on the agenda of this Ministerial Council, but it has not yet been completed and refers to the Second Energy Package, which has not been fully implemented,” Kopac said.
He added that the Secretariat is not insisting on a misdemeanor proceeding now, as “some things have been done after all.”
“But if Serbia does not take steps to separate activities under the Third Energy Package, the Secretariat will initiate a new procedure against Serbia,” Kopac said.
In 2015, Serbia passed the Energy Law, which would supposedly allow the full implementation of the set of energy regulations of the Second and Third Energy Packages of the European Union, which provide for the separation of energy production and supply from transport.
In addition, the regulations provide for third-party access to the network and the separation of activities in companies dedicated to the production, transmission and supply of electricity or gas, as well as greater customer protection.
Kopač said that “the Jugorosgaz transport case was treated as a step before the request for certain measures (sanctions) and that it is not yet a punishment, but a step before.”
“By separating the activity, you get an independent network operator, which allows access to any user, trader, supplier. Without that, there is no competition in the Serbian and regional gas market,” Kopac said.
The independent operator, as he said, clearly indicates its labor costs and income regulated by the regulator, the Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia (AERS), “so that there are no subsidies for the owner of Srbijagas.”
Kopač said that the Srbijagas company has not harmonized its operations with the EC Treaty since its establishment, “so it can be said that the case started in 2013, and the breach of the Third Srbijagas Energy Package has been going on since 2016.” .
When asked if there were more problems in Serbia’s energy sector, which is why the EC warned Serbia, Kopac replied “yes, because Srbijagas is blocking access to competition at the point of entry to the gas transmission system. Serbian from Hungary near Horgos “.
“Free access to the system at every point is a basic principle of the Third Package, and it is also a serious violation for which a case has been opened that will be considered by the Council of Ministers next week,” Kopac said.
“NIS made it possible to pollute the air throughout Serbia”
Source: H1
He noted that Serbia has been avoiding the application of the directive on the maximum proportion of sulfur in fuel oil for years.
“The Serbian Oil Industry (NIS) can pollute the air throughout Serbia with production, far beyond the permitted limits,” Kopac said.
He stated that the Serbian Electricity Grid, as an AERS certified electricity grid operator, “but contrary to the opinion of the EC Secretariat, which believes that the separation of powers within the Serbian Government is not properly organized.”
Serbia, Kopač continued, does not yet have an auction to support renewable energy sources, although this much cheaper way of supporting these investments would have to be part of Serbian law for years.
“The secretariat drafted a bill to amend the law in June 2017 for all EU members and everyone was grateful and adopted the appropriate legal changes, only Serbia and Kosovo ignored their obligation,” Kopac said.
“Unreasonable support for coal”
Source: H1
As he emphasized, the big problem in Serbia is “unreasonable support for coal.”
“President (Aleksandar) Vučić signed the Sofia Declaration, which provides for complete decarbonisation (abolition of the use of coal) by 2050, but a month later announced the construction of a coal-fired power plant, Kostolac 3,” Kopač said.
He added that a coal-fired power plant cannot be depreciated in 25 years and that “it is completely unreasonable if the promise of decarbonisation is serious.”
According to Kopac, according to the Sofia Declaration, Serbia would have to immediately introduce the price of carbon dioxide emissions.
In the region, as he said, only Montenegro has done so so far, and the EU will introduce a border tax for carbon dioxide emissions next year, and “then it will be clear who follows European policy and who does not.”
“The opinion of the Secretariat regarding Balkan Stream is ignored”
Source: H1
The Secretariat, he stated, has significant objections to the regulatory framework of the Balkan Stream gas pipeline through Serbia, because the regulator’s decision to exempt the project from the fundamental principles of the Third Package on Free Access, Rate Regulation and Separation of Activities did not respect the opinion of the Secretariat.
It added that the Secretariat Opinion was not accepted in the part on long-term exempt capacity, the monopoly position of Gastrans shareholders and the separation in Srbijagas and, more importantly, Serbia did not introduce any preventive measures against the future monopoly participation of both shareholders in the domestic market.
“If a decision could be made, several criteria had to be met to show, for example, that the project would increase competition,” Kopac said.
That test, he said, was negative and the opinion of the Secretariat was ignored.
Kopac said that “that issue has not yet come to an end, and the next possible obstacle is on the border with Hungary, because Hungary has not yet decided whether to build an extension of that pipeline.”
“If Hungary gives up on building a Balkan Stream extension, Serbian consumers will pay for someone else’s grand ambitions, without any benefit to Serbia,” Kopac told Beta.
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