"We are convinced of the need to remove all the artificial obstacles in the way of the realization (of the South Stream) and to act in compliance with the intergovernmental agreements already concluded". This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov regarding the South Stream gas pipeline, a project blocked by the European Commission and increasingly the subject of confrontation between Moscow and Brussels against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis.
Lavrov today received Slovenia's support for the new gas route, while a subsidiary of Gazprom, Tsentrgaz, was awarded the construction of the Serbian section of the South Stream. The minister reiterated that the new gas pipeline will strengthen the security of gas supplies to Europe, a position not shared by Washington which sees gas as Moscow's weapon for influencing European foreign policy.
In the meantime, the EU Commission has asked Bulgaria and obtained the suspension of the works for the South Stream, contesting the violation of the rules of the so-called Third Energy Package, which provides for the division between the role of gas distributor and supplier, which automatically excludes the Russian methane giant Gazprom. But Russia, as Lavrov pointed out again today, considers the application of the rules of the Third Package retroactively to the agreements already signed with individual EU countries to be incorrect and unacceptable. However, yesterday the number one of Gazprom, Aleksey Miller, underlined that Russia has not received a written declaration from Bulgaria to freeze the construction works of the local section of the planned gas pipeline, neither at an intergovernmental level, nor at a corporate level.
The gas pipeline project is intended to transport methane from Russia to the Old Continent, bypassing the turbulent Ukraine, but whose construction clashes with European legislation and various political wills contrary to Brussels. The North Stream, a twin gas pipeline linking Russia directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea and thus bypassing Ukraine, has already been in operation for some time.
