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09.06.2014 15:06- Bulgarian PM Plamen Oresharski (right) with US senators John McCain, Ron Johnson
© Press office of the Bulgarian government
Work on the South Stream gas pipeline project will be suspended until all requirements of the European Commission are met and the way the project will be implemented is clear, Bulgarian PM Plamen Oresharski said on Sunday following his meeting with U.S. senators John McCain, Christopher Murphy and Ron Johnson in Sofia. The senators discussed with PM Oresharski the situation in Ukraine, as well as bilateral relations and energy security matters.
“Further work [on South Stream] will depend on the upcoming consultations with Brussels. Construction works will not start until the procedure is coordinated with Brussels”, Plamen Oresharski stated following the meeting.
Possible sanctions from the U.S. against Bulgarian companies working with Russia’s Stroytransgaz on South Stream were also discussed. Senator McCain said he hopes that the South Stream issues will be solved with the consent of Europe and that no sanctioned companies would be allowed to work on the project.
“We hope that Bulgaria and the EU will work in coordination to solve this”, senator McCain said.
Despite the call to a halt of the construction start, Bulgaria’s minister of economy and energy Dragomor Stoinev said that South Stream’s implementation remains “rather imminent” as an European project. In his works hinders in Bulgaria are of predominantly legal nature. A delegation of European experts are scheduled to arrive in Sofia later this week to discuss the planned amendments to the Bulgarian Energy Act which treat the construction of the Black Sea part of South Stream.
“We have a consolidated position in favor of South Stream expressed by the countries along the route of the future pipeline. We will reconfirm our support for the project during the upcoming Energy Summit in Luxemburg at the end of the week”, minister Stoinev said.
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