Srbijagas enabled the Hungarian MVM Group to enter the energy sector of Serbia, through a joint venture for gas trading on the domestic market, which started operating today. After a lot of dust raised by the professional public, due to the same investor’s attempt to privatize part of the property of that public company through business with EPS – questions are being raised about the new arrangement, but the authorities are silent about it.
The Hungarian MVM did not pass in EPS, but it did in Srbijagas. And that, unofficially, as the majority owner of the Hungarian-Serbian company Srbhungas with a share of 51 percent.
What did the weaker side get, explains the first man of Serbia gas.
“During the opening of the market, we can more easily position ourselves in relation to the competition, because now the Hungarians get gas through Serbia, but part of the gas also arrives from Hungary, and the other part consists in the fact that we still haven’t fully built all our warehouses, we haven’t expanded the Banat Palace, and the Hungarians have a total storage capacity of seven billion cubic meters of gas,” stated Dušan Bajatović.
But, after MVM’s intention to buy 11 hydroelectric power plants from EPS, the fear of privatization of the property of public companies remains.
“I don’t know what we can offer the Hungarians, given that we don’t have gas storage facilities for us either, and the Hungarians have built close to six billion cubic meters,” says energy expert Miloš Zdravković and reminds that Serbia has only one storage facility in Banatski dvor. With a capacity of 450 million cubic meters, 51 percent of which is owned by Russia.
“Gas storages are built on gas fields. A country’s resources for building gas storage facilities are limited. I’m afraid that we won’t sell those locations in Srpski Itebej, that is, the other part in Banatski dvor, to the Hungarians,” says Zdravković.
“There is no investment of property, no investment of special rights, the market must be opened. “I don’t see why there’s a controversy, it’s a partnership for a joint appearance on the market,” says Bajatović.
There is controversy in the public because there is no information about that arrangement, and the whole process is non-transparent. And when the veil of secrecy surrounds state affairs, there is a suspicion that politics is involved.
The Srbija Centar Srce movement called on Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Siniša Mali to explain the reasons for, as they state in a statement, the urgent entry of MVM into the field of domestic energy. They add that there are indicative connections between the authorities and the Hungarian company.
“Hungary is a closer partner of the authorities in Belgrade, first of all, because of its relationship with the West, liberal democracy, the Kremlin and internal freedoms,” says energy expert Miodrag Kapor.
“The problem is of a political nature, that further progress is being made towards strategic cooperation with a country that is almost a ‘black sheep’ in the European Union, which is under various sanctions not only by the European Union, but also by the United States,” Kapor says, adding that Serbia could provide natural gas under optimal conditions, in cooperation with the entire European Union.
The harmful partnership with that Hungarian investor was almost rejected by the director of EPS, Miroslav Tomašević, so, it is speculated, he was fired because of that. Such a situation is not expected at Srbijagas.
“Nor is Mr. Bajatović similar to Mr. Tomašević in terms of expertise, it is illusory to talk about moral integrity. Of course we can’t expect opposition from him,” Zdravković assesses.
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