Baltic States – CIS, Energy, EU – Baltic States, Gas, Latvia, Legislation, Lithuania

Straujuma told media representatives yesterday that Latvia supports the European Commission's position, as "monopoly should be stopped". In case of a crisis though, Latvia will have access to gas reserves. It is important to keep access to alternative options on the gas market, the politician said.

Latvia continues cooperating with Russia on the gas market, and Straujuma is not concerned that Gazprom could "get even" with Latvia for the country's support toward the European Commission's position. "Latvia is part of the European Union, and we stand in solidarity with it," the prime minister said. At the same she said that relations with Russia are sometimes unpredictable.

The prime minister reminded that the Latvian gas market will become open on April 2, 2017. The Economy Ministry is currently preparing a legislative packet for this process.

Chairman of the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats, the Seimas opposition leader MP Andrius Kubilius thinks that the European Commission's decision regarding Gazprom has increased Lithuania's chances of getting billions for compensation from Gazprom at the Stockholm arbitration, reports LETA/ELTA.

"We welcome this firm decision of the European Commission as it should put an end to the Russian gas monopolist's abuse of dominant position in Europe. It shows that the way we chose to resist Gazprom's manipulations back in 2011 – by resorting to legal measures – has started bearing fruit. Now that the Commission has officially admitted that Gazprom had abused its dominant position, Lithuania has better chances of getting billions for damages at the Stockholm arbitration," said MP Kubilius who served as Lithuania's prime minister when the country submitted its complaints over Gazprom's activities both to the Commission and the arbitration.

According to Kubilius, Lithuania was the first country to take legal measures against Russia's monopolist.

As reported, on Wednesday European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager announced that the European Commission (EC) has issued a statement of objections against Gazprom over suspicions of abuse of dominant position in the gas markets of Central and Eastern Europe.

Gazprom was given 12 weeks to appeal against the statement of objections. The fact that the statement of objections has been published does not mean that it reached its final conclusion.

If the claims are substantiated, Gazprom risks fines of up to 10% of total sales, which amounted to the ruble equivalent of EUR 93 billion (USD 100 billion) in 2013, according to the latest data available.