Bulgaria Faces a Daily EUR 8000 Fine over South Stream

The planned South Stream pipeline project is a display of the excellent relations the Kremlin has with the Bulgarian government, according to an article published in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

The decision taken by Bulgaria's government in March regarding the South Stream was astonishing, the author, Florian Hassel, argues.

He is referring to the Energy Law amendments adopted end-March allowing for the Bulgarian section of the pipeline to go round European law and to be treated as part of the interconnection grid, so that the EU's Third Energy Package cannot be applied to it and no third parties can have access to its infrastructure.

The article reminds that, back in the summer of 2013, the European Commission warned all the states which were parties to the project that according to its blueprints Russia's energy concern Gazprom is virtually to have a monopoly over energy supplies.

Hassel says Bulgaria did not take the EU's words into sight and that was way the Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger asked an explanation as to why legislative changes were made.

He quotes a Western diplomat (without disclosing his name) as saying that "Bulgaria demonstratively showed the [middle] finger to the EU" by opting to go on with the amendments.

Ridden in corruption and EU funds abuse and stuck on its way to reforms as it is, Bulgaria is now threatened with a fine which could amount to EUR 8000 daily, or EUR 3 M a year, according to sources of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"Economically the South Stream has no sense... But for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin it is a geopolitical project with which he could skip Ukraine once and for all as a transit destination for Russian gas," Ognyan...