The secretariat of the Energy Community, a Vienna-based international energy
policy organization, said on Wednesday that it has submitted a reasoned request
to the Energy Community Ministerial Council, seeking its decision on Serbia's
failure to comply with gas unbundling rules.
The Ministerial Council
could take a decision on Serbia’s breach of its obligations under the Energy
Community Treaty on September 23 in Kiev, the Energy Community said in a
statement.
The secretariat has repeatedly expressed concerns that
Serbia’s two transmission system operators for natural gas, Srbijagas and
Yugorosgas, do not comply with unbundling requirements of the Second Energy
Package.
At its core, unbundling requires the effective separation of
activities of energy transmission from production and supply interests and
embodies thereby a cornerstone of the market opening process. The relevant
implementation deadline under Directive 2003/55/EC expired on July 1,
2007.
In February, the secretariat sent a reasoned request to Serbia,
under Article 90 of the Energy Community Treaty, requesting the country to
rectify the identified issues of non-compliance within a time limit of two
months.
Serbia has since failed to inform the secretariat within the
established deadline of any steps to bring the situation in compliance with
Energy Community law.
Due to the lack of an adequate response from the
Serbian authorities and the extensive delay in the implementation of the
respective requirements, the secretariat has submitted a reasoned request to the
Ministerial Council.
The dispute settlement procedure does not provide
for a judicial decision in the last instance. In cases of serious and persistent
breaches of the Energy Community Treaty, certain of the rights deriving of the
application of the Treaty to the party concerned may be suspended by the
Ministerial Council.
The Energy Community was established by an
international law treaty in October 2005. As of July 1, 2013, the parties to the
treaty are the European Union and Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Kosovo, FYROM, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine.