The European Commission decided today to continue infringement procedure no. 2009/2183 against the Republic of Bulgaria and to refer the case to the Court. Since the start of the procedure in 2009, all established shortcomings were eliminated by the Bulgarian Transmission System Operator, except the one indicated in the Press release.
The Press release states that the infringement not yet redressed by the Transmission System Operator in Bulgaria involves the provision of virtual commercial capacity through the natural gas transit transmission system, thus providing natural gas market participants with the opportunity to use the network to its maximum capacity.
The redress of such infringement involves compliance of the terms of the Contract for Transit of Russian Natural Gas through the Republic of Bulgaria with the European requirements, as well as reaching common agreement with neighboring transmission system operators on the way of securing such condition by uniform procedures.
The Bulgarian Transmission System Operator had taken active steps of which the European Commission was informed, and constructive dialogue is ongoing. There is a clearly stated wish for support by the European Commission towards the solution of the issue by dialogue between all parties involved.
The litigation procedure for the established infringement allows redress of breach in the course of its progress.
The EC objective is to achieve compliance with the requirements and not to impose financial sanctions on the respective Member State. We remain assured that the requirements of the EU law will be met in the course of the procedure through the interaction of all parties concerned whereas the government of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Transmission System Operator had declared their clear position to support this process.