The prices of gas, and consequently energy, have risen dramatically in the past few months, Poland's PAP news agency reported.
It quoted a Polish diplomat it did not name as saying that "most European Union countries are concerned and some have lobbied successfully for the issue to be discussed at the EU's October summit in Brussels."
The diplomat added there was a huge chance the Brussels summit would formally ask the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to investigate Gazprom's price-upping practices, PAP reported, without naming the source.
Poland is arguing that gas prices have rocketed because Gazprom is limiting its supplies to individual EU states. Supply orders have fallen by half and "warehouses aren't filled up, which puts pressure on the prices to keep rising," the diplomat also said, according to PAP.
Warsaw says energy prices have gone up in tandem with rising prices of rights to carbon dioxide emissions, following a reform of the European emissions-trading scheme (ETS), PAP reported.
According to Polish Radio's Brussels correspondent, rising energy prices are set to be discussed when the bloc's leaders meet for an informal dinner in the Slovenian town of Brdo on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, more than 40 lawmakers in the European Parliament wrote a letter to the Commission a few weeks ago, calling for an investigation, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The MEPs wrote that falling gas supplies were resulting in bigger energy bills for EU consumers.
"This raises the suspicion that Gazprom is deliberately trying to pressure Europe into approving the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline despite its incompatibility with EU regulations," one lawmaker was quoted as saying.
Nord Stream 2, the controversial new gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, is awaiting certification by Berlin's regulatory body, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP