Poland demands EU probe Russian state gas giant, as Warsaw accuses Moscow of engineering rising energy bills across much of Europe

Poland has written to the EU asking that Brussels bring legal action against Russia's state-owned energy firm Gazprom, which, Warsaw argues, has created a severe gas crisis. The bloc's leaders have already rejected the claims.

In a letter sent to the Deputy Head of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, and published on Wednesday, Polish Climate and Environment Minister, Michal Kurtyka, argued that the Russian energy company should be held to account for its alleged role in the fuel shortage that has swept across Europe in recent weeks.

The minister claimed that Russia is deliberately restricting export gas supplies to Europe, which, he says, have contributed to scarcity across the region, and that “the scale of the price jump is unprecedented, with more than twelve-fold year-on-year growth.”

The problem of growing energy prices, Kurtyka says, “is related to a lower-than-expected volume of gas supplied from Russia… In recent months, various actions of Gazprom could be observed, which were different from what happened in previous years,” and it supposedly “does not reserve additional reserves for the Yamal gas pipeline and the network passing through Ukraine,” he added.

“The restrictions on gas transit are significant and currently reach more than 60% and, since November, even 90% on the Yamal pipeline and 55% on the Ukrainian system. In October, only about 30% of the available capacity on the Polish section of the Yamal pipeline was used. Furthermore, these reservations are not long-term, but monthly,” he said.

At the start of August, the price of gas on the Dutch TTF index was around $515 per thousand cubic meters, but then in early October it reached over the $1,900 mark, a new record high.

Last week, the European Commission said that there is no evidence that Russian state energy giant Gazprom is attempting to squeeze Western Europe’s fuel supplies. Frans Timmermans, the Commission’s deputy head, said, “Russia is fulfilling its gas-supply contracts.” He added that “we have no reason to believe it is putting pressure on the market or manipulating it.”

Russia's President Vladimir Putin blamed the rise in prices on falling electricity output from wind farms, which make up a growing share of the EU’s energy generation. He blasted claims Russia is ‘weaponizing’ energy supplies as “complete nonsense” and claimed that “proper analysis of the situation is often replaced by empty political slogans.”

Some parts of Western Europe have seen gas prices shoot up by as much as 250% in recent weeks, with homeowners and businesses seeing the squeeze hit their bills in the run-up to winter.

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