Degutiene: EC probe on Gazprom launched reasonably

VILNIUS- Lithuanian Seimas Speaker Irena Degutiene welcomes the step of the European Union (EU) authorities and says that the European Commission's (EC) launched probe on Russian energy giant Gazprom was started reasonably.

"() before it seemed that it was only a matter of Lithuania and we did not have any support, today, I am very pleased that the investigation was launched, " said Seimas Speaker, Wednesday morning in an interview with the radio Ziniu Radijas.

ELTA has previously reported that on Tuesday the EC launched an investigation of whether the Russian energy giant Gazprom violated the EU antitrust laws by preventing competition in the Central and Eastern European gas markets.

The EC has expressed concern that Gazprom "may abuse its dominant market position" in Central and Eastern EU Member States.

The Commission suspects that Gazprom violated the EU antitrust rules restricting the flow of gas to the EU countries, hindering competitors and demanding unfair price from its customers.

The Commission may impose fines of up to 10 percent of the annual global turnover to the companies that violate antitrust rules.