PL
EN
What goes on in Poland on the 14th of July.
The CJEU to issue a judgment on the future of the Nord Stream land branch on Thursday
On Thursday, July 15, the Court of Justice of the European Union will issue a judgment on the legality of exempting the OPAL gas pipeline from the obligation to apply EU regulations. PGNiG and the Polish government have questioned the consent to exempt the land arm of Nord Stream from the third energy package. In 2019, the Court of the European Union upheld the complaint of the Government of the Republic of Poland, upholding the arguments of the Polish side and annulled the decision of the European Commission. However, in December 2019 the German government appealed against the judgment, demanding that the judgment be revoked.
Parallel proceedings are pending before a German court on a complaint filed by PGNiG and PST concerning the annulment of the administrative settlement concluded between BNetzA, Gazprom, Gazprom Export and Opal Gastransport. Under this administrative arrangement, an exemption has been granted which allows for special treatment of the Opal pipeline. “Due to the close relationship between the decisions of the European Commission and the administrative settlement, it was crucial to simultaneously appeal against both acts issued in the present case – i.e. both the decision of the European Commission and the administrative settlement concluded in Germany,” explains PGNiG, which presented the arguments of the Polish side before the Court. Proceedings regarding the complaint of PGNiG SA and PST against the administrative settlement regarding the OPAL gas pipeline before the Higher National Court in Düsseldorf remain in fact suspended until the judgment of the Court of Justice. “If the Court upholds the judgment of the European Union Court, the German court should uphold the complaints of PGNiG SA and PST,” explains PGNiG.
PGE, Enea and Tauron applied to UOKiK to establish a joint offshore company
On July 5 Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE), Enea and Tauron submitted an application to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) to create a joint enterprise. The companies want to establish a joint entity that will submit new applications and acquire permits to build new offshore wind farms.
In January, PGE, Enea and Tauron signed a letter of intent regarding cooperation in the field of offshore wind energy. The groups then announced that they wanted to establish a special purpose vehicle that would apply for new concessions. New offshore wind farm projects would appear in the Baltic Sea in the 2030s after winning the auctions in 2025 and 2027. At the end of June, Tauron submitted to the Spanish company OW Offshore a statement on the expiry of the previously concluded cooperation agreement regarding the development of offshore wind farm projects in the Polish Exclusive Economic Zone in the Baltic Sea.
