Bulgaria Halts Work on South Stream Gas Pipeline
Source: Associated Press
Bulgaria's prime minister has ordered on Sunday a halt to construction work on the Gazprom-led South Stream pipeline project planned to bypass Ukraine as a transit country and consolidating Russia's energy grip in Europe.
Plamen Oresharski said after meeting U.S. Sens. John McCain, Christopher Murphy and Ron Johnson that he has ordered all work on the disputed project to continue only after consultations with Brussels.
Last week, the European Commission opened an infringement procedure against the Balkan country and asked construction work to be stopped, arguing that Bulgaria hadn't respected EU internal market rules covering the award of public contracts.
The standoff over Ukraine has forced the 28-nation EU into a sudden rethink of its energy policies to make it less reliant on Russia and its state-owned gas company Gazprom.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/bulgaria-halts-work-south-stream-gas-pipeline-24048329
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)Authority, when first detecting chaos at its heels, will entertain the vilest schemes to save its orderly facade.
~V
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Krotch Brothers here. Smells like the Oil Biggees and Putin got a deal and the XL Senators just delivered their message.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,935 posts)Berlin Expat
(949 posts)was counting on the South Stream going on line in the not-too-distant future, and with that off the table for the time being, that's gonna hurt.