Samaras: The DEPA embroilment will not bring new measures

In his statements after the meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker, Samaras attempted to assure that the withdrawal of the interest by Russian Gazprom for DEPA does not mark the imposition of new measures. "We have heard such ludicrous things that due to this temporary embroilment in the DESP competition there will be new measures," he said.

Indirectly, the Greek premier attributed the involvement in the competition for DEPA’s privatization to the European Commission, without acquitting the Russian side that did not submit a proposal for the acquisition of the state-owned gas company despite the expectations it had fostered.

"The contest for both companies was conducted in accordance with all the rules," he said adding that it "demonstrated a significant interest in the first phase, in the second phase explanations were requested and given, and until a few days ago there was no problem."

Commenting on the failure the DEPA privatization which the government hoped to collect about 1 billion euros from, Samaras merely said "there were problems outside and beyond us," photographing the European Competition Commission that was reportedly going to put obstacles in the DEPA buyout by Gazprom, on the grounds that the Russians have a dominant market position and therefore running the risk of creating monopoly conditions.

Samaras spoke about a temporary problem in the sale of DEPA and attacked those who react to the privatization effort. "There are many who do not want any privatization in Greece. They are against us."

"We have already launched a new competition that will soon be successful. There is a remarkable offer to DESFA also, which seems to increase Greece’s chances of winning the TAP case, the that pipeline will be joining Greece, Albania and Italy," the Greek PM said.

Earlier the Luxembourg premier was asked to confirm whether the European Competition Commission blocked the sale of DEPA to the Russians. "I do not know if the Commission was involved in the privatization of DEPA. Neither do I rule it out nor do I think it is relevant," Juncker said.