Nov 17 (LNGJ) - The European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union, said it was suing LNG and pipeline gas importer Poland over additional costs the Poles have imposed for cross-border natural gas trading. Poland is facing the lawsuit at the European Court of Justice for imposing “restrictive measures” under its national legislation on energy companies not using Polish storage.
Polish natural gas trading laws exclude the EU trading principle of “use it or lose it”. Instead, Poland requires gas importers and traders of gas stored outside Poland to ensure that they can deliver the total mandatory amounts of gas to the Polish national transmission or distribution network at all times, and to book firm transportation capacity into Poland just in case this may be needed. However, gas suppliers using Polish storage facilities are not subject to such restrictions and the Commission argues that this distorts the gas market.
