Will the European Commission's policy hinder gas supplies to Central and Eastern European countries? OPAL case decision

Natural gas has become one of the most important sources of energy. The liberalization of the gas sector in the last decades brought a dynamic development of the energy infrastructure in the EU. Thus it must be underlined that the liquidity of the gas market is dependent on the outside supplies. The study examines the European Commission's Policy taking into consideration specifically its decision on the exemption of OPAL gas pipeline from EU rules. The main question is what would be the long term effect of such policy. In the authors opinion there are several serious doubts whether the Commission has made an appropriate decision. The major one concentrate on the impact of the decision, which according to the Commission refers only to Germany and Czechia gas market. Nevertheless an analysis of gas flow based on the ENTSOG leads to a conclusions that decision could have a substantial influence on Slovakia and Poland. If so, under the EU provisions the investment can not be excluded form the EU rules. Therefore the authors will analyze step by step the Commission decision and present its possible future impact on the internal energy market.