Brussels, 13/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - As well as the issue of supplying Russian gas to Ukraine, European Commissioner for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic will speak to the Russian authorities, including Russia's minister for energy, Alexander Novak, about the cancellation of South Stream (the Russian gas pipeline project under the Black Sea) during his visit to Moscow on Wednesday 14 January.
“I promised Bulgaria's prime minister, Boyko Borissov, that I would examine this issue with my Russian colleagues because Bulgaria has done its utmost to respect EU legislation”, Sefcovic told press after his meeting with Borissov on Monday 12 January. “I spoke to Novak on the phone and he told me [Ed: on 11 December] that South Stream could no longer be brought about. But Borissov has told me of new elements - which is why I intend to put this issue back on the agenda”, Sefocovic said.
The focus of the meeting between Sefcovic and Borissov in Brussels on Monday was Bulgaria's energy security and its interconnections with other countries in south-east Europe, in the context of abandoning the South Stream project. The Commission and seven member states from central and south-east Europe that were involved in this project (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Romania and Slovenia) decided, on 10 December, to set up a high level working group tasked with bringing progress to the most important cross-border diversification projects in the region. On Monday, Borissov stated Bulgaria's desire to become a distribution hub for common gas for the EU member states in the region, to supply central and eastern Europe and the countries of the Energy Community.