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13.06.2014 11:30- Bulgarian PM Plamen Oresharski
The European Commission has requested that all work on South Stream be stopped until it is cleared out whether the project actually breaches any European regulations, which led Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski to order the Bulgarian companies involved to halt their work. Oresharski and energy minister Dragomir Stoinev answered a number of questions related to South Stream and the EU infringement procedure against Bulgaria in the parliament.
South Stream was the main topic of today’s parliamentary discussions after the BSP-led government of Oresharski survived a fifth no-confidence vote since it stepped into office in May 2013.
“I cannot give such instructions to the Russian side, do I ordered the Bulgarian side to suspend its work”, Oresharski said, although he failed to explain how the Council of Ministers could take a stand in a project which in his words is being carried out “under a commercial contract which is subject to trade secret”. Oresharski declined to give any details on the project's parameters. Rumors that Bulgaria signed the deal with Gazprom have been circulating unconfirmed since the end of May, when a consortium of five Bulgarian Companies led by Russia’s Stroytransgaz was chosen to build the onshore pipeline in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria has to submit its official answers by June 29. The EC has expressed concerns regarding the selection of South Stream Transport as owner and operator of the future pipeline, the ability of Bulgaria to negotiate and sign the intergovernmental MoUs and the fact that the constructor of South Stream was chosen without a public procurement.
Bulgarian energy minister Dragomir Stoinev had to explain his statement that South Stream is imminent which clashes with the suspension announced by the PM.
“My opinion is that the project is strategic for Bulgaria, it also has a geostrategic importance for the Balkans and is obviously important to the other countries involved”, Stoinev said
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