Bulgaria PM in EU Commission for South Stream Talks

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov is due to meet EU Commission Vice President Maro? ?ef?ovi? on Monday, the government's press office has said.

The abandoned South Stream gas project, Bulgaria's alternatives to guarantee energy security, and its effort to put forward a gas hub project as a substitute to the scrapped pipeline are to top the two politicians' agenda.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in December Russia was renouncing the South Stream pipeline over Sofia's reluctance to unlock construction, Bulgaria is pinning its hopes on a proposal to build a gas hub where South Stream's landfall was supposed to be located. This would involve completing the pipeline's offshore section.

The EU had resisted South Stream as it had been planned, arguing it would infringe its common rules.

Talks between Borisov and ?ef?ovi?, who oversees Europe's efforts toward an Energy Union, come two days ahead of the latter's visit to Moscow, where he is set to meet Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak.

The Prime Minister is to meet two more officials, Corina Cre?u (Commissioner for Regional Policy) and Kristalina Georgieva (Vice President for Budget and Human Resources).

A delegation accompanying him includes his deputy Tomislav Donchev and also the Energy Minister, Temenuzhka Petkova.