The European Commission has no plans to introduce special restrictive measures against Russian energy companies, a source in the European Commission told ITAR-TASS, commenting on today's publication in the Financial Times. The newspaper announced that as part of the preparation of a set of proposals regarding the European energy policy to be accepted on 19 September the European Commission looks at the possibility of introducing restrictions against energy companies from Russia and Saudi Arabia in order to prevent them from strengthening their positions on the European market. According to the explanation provided by a representative of the European Commission, the energy concept that is currently being developed is aimed at ensuring equal competitive terms for European and foreign energy companies in the framework of the European energy market liberalised on 1 July. One of the most controversial requirements of the European Commission under these circumstances was the division of energy corporations' assets. According to these regulations, European gas and electricity concerns would have to divide into separate companies their energy generation and production assets, on the one hand, and assets engaged in transportation and distribution of energy to end users, on the other hand. This requirement met active protest on the part of some European countries fearing that the division of European energy companies would make them easy targets for takeovers by foreign energy monopolies. The European Commission representative said that the rules for energy companies division would have to be applied to absolutely all corporations, European as well as foreign, operating on the European market. At the same time he noted that measures are currently discussed that would provide for the protection of European companies against hostile takeovers. |
