“Our Russian partners have been our most important partners for decades… But our Russian partners have to accept our European Union’s rules – our legislation, competition, our market regulation and so on. We have to come to commitments and common understanding with the Russian partners,” he told reporters about his message to Russia’s gas concern Gazprom after the meeting with Lithuania’s President earlier on Thursday.
Both the EU and Russia were interested in reaching common solutions, he said.
“I think there are many common interests and some difficult points and different interests, but Russian partners and we are pragmatic and smart and everybody is interested to come to common solutions,” Commissioner said.
The EU is currently conducting a probe involving Gazprom, which may be completed at the end of this year or next spring.
Earlier this month, the European Commission announced its plan to officially inform Gazprom of the suspicions resulting from the investigation into possibly unfair gas prices for Lithuania and some other EU countries.
The probe was opened in September last year.
