Polish diplomats in Brussels point to Gazprom and its market manipulation as one of the reasons for the rise in energy prices and urge the EU to take action.
Beata Pomecka, a Brussels correspondent for Polish radio, was the first to report about 40 MEPs appealing to the European Commission about ten days ago with a request to investigate the activities of the Russian monopoly.
Diplomats in Brussels later said that Poland also demanded a strong response from the Commission, arguing that restrictions on Russian gas supplies to Europe were driving up gas prices.
“The European Union should not allow gas producers to abuse their dominant position and use gas supplies as an instrument of political pressure,” reads a Twitter post from the Permanent Mission of Poland to the European Union, which mentions Gazprom. “The rise in energy prices directly affects all citizens and is associated with extremely high socio-economic costs for the poorest segments of the population,” the Polish Embassy in the EU stressed.
The European Commission, when asked several times by the Brussels correspondent of Polish Radio, replied that it sees the problem in high energy prices, but links it directly not with Gazprom, but with the pandemic, economic recovery and growing demand for gas.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Russian monopoly and the authorities in Moscow are trying to take advantage of the situation and want to give consent to the launch of Nord Stream 2 by force, stating that this will lead to a drop in gas prices.