"Srbijagas issues won't slow down chapter opening"

"Srbijagas issues won't slow down chapter opening"

Antic says that the only two measures that the Energy Community could take against Serbia is deny it the right to vote in the process of adopting the budget of the Energy Community and deny it the right to reimbursement of travel-related expenses.

Antic said that he was taken aback by a statement made by Director of the Energy Community Secretariat Janez Kopac that if Serbia failed to resolve issues in its energy sector it could face sanctions, such as difficulties in opening individual chapters and tightening of conditionalities attached to provision of IPA funds.

"The Energy Community is not a mechanism in which sanctions as measures exist. The only possible measure is a limitation regarding the right to vote on the budget of the Energy Community and the other measure is the absence of reimbursement of travel-related expenses to contracting parties, which amounted to EUR 5,027 in 2015" Antic told journalists on Wednesday.

The biggest criticism from the Energy Community so far, over delays in unbundling of Serbia's gas monopoly Srbijagas, arrived yesterday, and Antic pointed out that Serbia had been under obligation to separate transportation and supply activities in the enterprise since 2005, but the problem had started being addressed only after the current government had come to power.