The Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), the country’s anti-monopoly body, has fined French energy company Engie over 40 million euros for failing to provide information regarding its involvement in Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
The fine was announced on November 8 based on the results of a UOKiK investigation launched in April 2018 against Russian energy giant Gazprom and the five other shareholders in the consortium building Nord Stream 2, according to Emerging Europe, which quotes Polish news sources.
“The company has stubbornly and in an unjustified way refused to give us the documents and materials we demanded. It caused a significant delay in our actions regarding the financing of Nord Stream 2,” the UOKiK said in a statement.
Reacting to the fine, which is the largest ever imposed by the Polish anti-monopoly organisation, the French company announced that it would appeal the decision.
Poland and the Baltic states have long opposed the Russian-built pipeline that will deliver an estimated 55 billion cubic metres of gas per year to Germany via the Baltic Sea, over fears that it will jeopardise Ukraine’s role as a gas transit country and the EU’s energy security.
The story originally appeared on Emerging Europe.
