13 Nov 2010 19:34

Third energy package will threaten Europe with energy-resource price growth - Putin

SOFIA. Nov 13 (Interfax) - Implementing the European Union's third energy package would threaten Europe with energy-resource price growth and result in less investment than needed in infrastructural development and the entrance into the supply chain of superfluous agents, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said during a Saturday press conference in Sofia.

The EU's third energy package for liberalizing the energy market takes effect in March of 2012. It envisions the further division of sales and transport structures.

Putin said the EU's decision "was dictated by good intentions, but the outcome of implementing such decisions is hard to discern."

"Companies that owned pipeline transport do not have opportunity to pump gas through these pipes, and that means they can squeeze out small companies that don't have any relation to the extraction of energy resources, and that will be an additional burden on end-prices," Putin said.