Greek Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Panos Skourletis has accused the European Commission of delaying the deal on selling a share in Greece's DESFA gas transmission system operator to Azerbaijan’s state oil company (SOCAR), the Greek media reported July 26.

In his speech in the Greek parliament, Skourletis said that a number of conditions, set by the European Commission, greatly slowed the privatization process of the gas operator, the message said.

In particular, the company will become a passive shareholder, not entitled to vote in the management of the company, as a result of decreasing SOCAR’s share in DESFA up to 49 percent, the message said.

According to the message, Greek MPs stressed that the problems with the privatization of DESFA may deprive the country’s economy of SOCAR’s huge capital injections.

SOCAR won a tender in 2013 on the purchase of a 66-percent stake in DESFA for 400 million euros.

Earlier, Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said that the deal on SOCAR's purchasing the 66-percent share in Greece's gas transmission system operator DESFA will be completed after Italy's Snam purchases 17 percent of that share.