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The Sieci weekly confirmed the concerns about the inaccuracies which plagued the Yamal contract negotiations for deliveries of Russian gas to Poland. It is high time that the Supreme Audit Office’s (NIK) report on the issue was declassified – writes Wojciech Jakóbik of BiznesAlert.pl.
In an article titled “Gas walkover” the reporters from Sieci, Marek Pyza and Marcin Wikło, revealed what happened behind the scenes of the Poland-Russia gas negotiations in 2010. In their opinion this was „a match without the opposite team”.
In their opinion Poles agreed to inexplicable concessions: they decided to forego PLN 1 bn of Gazprom’s debt, they lowered transit fees for EuRoPol Gaz, they agreed to organizational changes in the company which were bad for Poland and wanted to extend the overpriced agreement by 15 years.
After getting in touch with Russians in the spring of 2009 the negotiation instruction changed. ‘The one from February secured Polish interests. The one from July did not,” the journalists wrote. The documents were hidden from the public eye because they were classified. The weekly, however, got access to them.
It is hard to comment on the weekly’s document, which reveals the surprising submissiveness of the Polish negotiators. It has been known for years that in 2010 the only thing that saved us from a catastrophe was the European Commission’s intervention, which won more beneficial terms regarding the Yamal contract, which will be binding until 2022.
It is time to end the speculations
The truth about the gas delivery deal and the transit contract, which may also hide important secrets, is included in those documents. The Supreme Audit Office (NIK) published two reports on the issue, both are classified. There is nothing else to do, but repeat my appeal from January 2014 when I called on declassifying the NIK report and other documents related to the gas deal with Russia. I wrote about the inaccuracies back in 2010 with Kamil Zając. It is time to end the speculations and decide whether the contract is in Poland’s interest. The disclosure of the report rests in the hands of the Ministry of Energy.
This is a key issue to the ongoing discussion on diversification. It may turn out that doing away with the Yamal contract is important not only because of economic reasons, because its price is too high, but also political, because the contract was signed to the detriment of Poland.
Revealing the documents could confirm the gossip on some controversial clauses in the document, which may impact sectors outside of natural gas. Unofficial sources have suggested that in the Lithuania-Russia contract there is a clause on an exterritorial corridor for the Russian army.
