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29.05.2014 11:14- Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger
© European Commission
The EU is likely to delay the talks with Russia over the South Stream gas pipeline project, EU energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger said Wednesday. Oettinger’s statement comes as a response to the recent developments in Crimea.
“I won't accelerate talks about pipelines such as South Stream for the time being, they will be delayed," Oettinger, a German national, said in daily paper Die Welt, as reported by Reuters.
Oettinger denied that Europe might be facing a gas supply issue as a diplomatic solution is sought to Russian troops taking control of Crimea following the collapse of Ukraine's government.
According to a new document on EU energy security published on Wednesday member-countries and the EU should be speaking with one voice in external energy policy. The Commission will ensure that all agreements and all infrastructure projects on EU territory fully comply with the relevant EU legislation, the document reads.
South Stream in particular should be suspended until a full compliance with the EU legal framework is achieved and after that a new assessment of the project should be carried out in the light of the EU energy security priorities, Guenther Oettinger added.
While in the last week Oettinger said that South Stream is not a priority for the EU, Bulgaria, being the first country along the European route of the pipeline, has been defending the importance of South Stream.
“South Stream remains a strategic project for us. Despite the hardened tone of communication recently, I believe that the talks between Russia and the EU will carry on”, Bulgarian minister of economy and energy Dragomir Stoinev commented on Wednesday, adding that he looks at big energy projects exclusively through the prism of national interest and the urgent need for supply diversification.
Stoinev assured that all planned amendments to the Bulgarian Energy Act are to be carried out in compliance with the European legal framework. These strongly criticized amendments which are yet to pass a second reading are introducing the so called “sea pipeline” which is to be exempt from the rules of the 3rd energy package. If voted, the amendments would exclude a portion of South Stream lying in Bulgaria’s Black Sea waters from the EU rules which stipulate that the owner of the pipe cannot have full ownership of the transport capacity, thus allowing Gazprom to monopolize the gas supplies via South Stream to the EU.
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