MINSK, 29 November (BelTA) – Serious progress has been secured in the discussion about the formation of a common natural gas market in the Eurasian Economic Union as well as approaches to determining the cost of gas transportation, Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Tigran Sargsyan told BelTA in an interview as he commented on results of the latest session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in Minsk.
The official said: “In line with the EAEU Treaty the national governments have the authority to determine the cost of gas transportation. In other words, the Eurasian Economic Commission does not possess such supranational power for now. Upon instructions of the prime ministers we've held a meeting of the energy ministers of the five countries in order to work out a common foundation. We've managed to secure an essential step forward: the Russian Federation has agreed to make the fundamental principles of equal opportunity, transparency, equal conditions in the sphere of tariff setting part of the common natural gas formation program in the way the principles are stipulated by the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty and the Eurasian Economic Commission Board recommendation on universal methods for setting tariffs on products of natural monopolies.”
“It is a very serious step forward. It creates prerequisites for us to reach a wise compromise about how the natural gas market should operate,” believes Tigran Sargsyan.
Participants of the session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in Minsk also discussed the distribution of import customs duties among the budgets of the national governments. “We had an intense and important discussion about how we should move forward in this area. Remarks and proposals of the heads of government should help the Eurasian Economic Commission come up with a compromise variant, which we should present before the heads of state at a session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Saint Petersburg in early December,” said Tigran Sargsyan.
