Poland wants to fine Gazprom without losing Russia's natural gas

Poland, like Germany, wants to become Europe's main natural gas hub, the stakes are very high, hence Warsaw's constant attacks on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project. The Polish Office for the Protection of Competition and Consumers (UOKiK) fined Gazprom $57 million for refusing to cooperate in the case on the legality of the procedure for creating the Nord Stream AG consortium, the official website of the agency said.It was also said that this obligation ensues from the European norms, on which the Polish law on consumer protection and competition is based.The Poles believe that the procedure for creating a consortium to finance the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was carried out without the necessary consent from the head of UOKiK. In this regard, the head of UOKiK brought charges against six companies: Russia's Gazprom, Engie Energy of Switzerland and four companies of the Netherlands: Uniper, OMV, Shell and Wintershall.Sergei Pikin, the director of the Energy Development Fund, told Pravda.Ru that the decision was made because there was a risk of a decrease in transit through Poland, let alone political reasons.From the point of view of the expert, Gazprom will not provide any information so that the decision on new penalties would not be based on it. "Gazprom understood that decisions on tougher sanctions against Nord Stream-2 would be based on this information, so it did not provide this information. The regulator imposed the largest fine that can be applied if information is not provided," said Sergei Pikin.