The Serbian government and the Energy
Community,a Vienna-based international energy policy organization, have agreed
on an action plan for the unbundling of state-owned gas monopoly Srbijagas, the
Energy Community said on Friday.
The agreement would provide the basis
for rectifying a breach of Energy Community law while also creating conditions
for Serbia to start accession talks with the EU on energy policy.
The
agreed action plan would see Srbijagas establish a legally separate subsidiary
in charge of network operation in March 2015, the Energy Community said in a
statement.
The new company will be licensed by Serbia's energy regulator,
AERS, as transmission system operator before the end of May 2015.
The
action plan also includes concrete steps for the separation of management
responsibilities between the new company and its parent, Srbijagas, to be
completed by July 1, 2015.
In October 2013, the secretariat of the Energy
Community opened dispute settlement procedure against Serbia for failure to
comply with unbundling rules in the gas sector as per EU's Third
Package.
The relevant EU rules call for vertically integrated gas
undertakings to unbundle their transmission system operation activities from the
activities related to the supply of gas.
In December, the Serbian
parliament endorsed a bill to extend state guarantees for $200 million (176
million euro) in loans that Srbijagas, which posted a consolidated loss of 50.8
billion dinars ($477.7 million/421.5 million euro) on operating income of 69
billion dinars in 2013, plans to take out.
In April 2013, the energy
ministry said Srbijagas had accumulated around 1.1 billion euro in debts and
that the long overdue restructuring of the company was holding back key gas
infrastructure projects, including such of regional importance.
The
Energy Community was established by aninternational 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. The key aim of the organization is to extend the EU internal
energy market to Southeast Europe and beyond on the basis of a legally binding
framework.
The EU formally opened accession talks with Serbia in January
2014.