A non-paper of the EU legal service lit fires in the European gas market. to Member States with final recipients Gazprom’s client companies. The document, to which “Kathimerini” has access, is entitled as a preliminary analysis of the Russian presidential decree of March 31, 2022, which refers to to Gazprom’s new payment mechanism for the supply of gas to European companies. The initial interpretation of the EU legal service is that the payment mechanism introduced by Putin’s decree leads “In violation of the existing restrictive measures approved by the EU”.
What does Putin want?
Putin’s decree obliges European companies to open two special accounts with Gazprombank, one in euros and the other in rubles. Payments will be made by European companies in euros or dollars, as stipulated in their contracts with Gazprom, and then Gazprombank will convert the euros into rubles and deposit them in the second account, through which they will be directed to Gazprom.
This new framework, according to the EU legal service, at all levels “allows the Russian state through institutions such as the Central Bank of Russia to control for itself when and how payment obligations are completed. The procedure deprives European companies of any control at the time of the actual payment of their debts and introduces unforeseen additional costs, which depend on its unilateral decision».
Alarm in European and Greek energy
The manner of payment is carried out, according to the decree, it ends “not be completed in the currency specified in the contract at the time when the amounts are deposited in the accounts of the EU buyers. of the bank or financial institution provided for in the contract, but only at an unknown and unspecified moment, from the point where the foreign currency is deposited in the first special account, converted into rubles and credited to the second special account opened in Gazprobank “. As reported by non paper‘During this process The Russian state, through its central bank, has complete control over the foreign currency (at that point it is still owned by EU buyers), which can only be manipulated to its advantage“, points out the legal service of the Commissionhowever, clarifying that this is a preliminary analysis of a technical nature and that other instructions will follow.
The fact that the new payment mechanism may violate sanctions against Russia has upset European companies, as in the Greek, DEPA, Mytilineos and Prometheus Gas. Since last week they received the non paper from the Ministry of Environment and Energy, through their legal services explore the potential impact on their funding and expect a clear binding cruise line from the Commission until 20 May who will have to pay for the April consumption with the new mechanism.
According to Putin’s decree, eif a company does not pay with the new mechanism it will not receive gas. On the other hand, and based on the issues raised by the non paper, if they implement the decree that may violate the sanctions, then the sanctions will be extended to the same and they will suddenly find themselves without access to financing for their investments. Today, Greek companies will normally pay in March the consumption of March, hoping that by May 20 the EU. will have reached a joint binding decision.
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