OREANDA-NEWS World Trade Organization supported Russia position in the dispute with the European Union.  The Ministry of economic development reported, that the dispute concerns Third Energy Package.

Russia launched the dispute in 2014, claiming that the EU's "Third Energy Package" and the EU's energy policy overall unfairly restricted and discriminated against Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom .

In particular, the WTO considered illegal restrictions on gas supplies from Russia via the Opal pipeline, including 50% use of its capacity.  EU rules on gas sales on the exchange and discrimination against GTS operators in Lithuania, Hungary and Croatia are also considered illegal.

At the same time, the WTO did not support Russia's objections to the requirements of the Third Energy Package for the separation of gas production and transportation.

In total, the Russian side contested six blocks of measures. They include both the requirements of the Third Energy Package and the mechanisms for their implementation by individual EU member States.

"The decisions taken on all three blocks of measures are able to improve the access conditions for Russian natural gas to the EU market. It also help to align the conditions of competition in the EU market for Russian suppliers of pipeline transport services. " the Ministry of economic development noted.

Gazprom has already said that  the decision is satisfied the company: the position of the European Union had real violations. The company expects that the EU will eliminate them and bring the legislation in line with WTO requirements.

In 2014, Russia began the procedure of proceedings in the WTO because of the EU's application of Third Energy Package. In March 2016, a group of WTO arbitrators was assembled to consider the case.

The Third Energy Package implies that the owners of the main pipelines located in the region cannot be companies engaged in gas production. These requirements created obstacles for the «South stream» construction, which had to be abandoned.