Russia confirms decision to abandon South Stream | EurActiv
▻http://www.euractiv.com/sections/energy/russia-confirms-decision-abandon-south-stream-final-310712
Ministers of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Romania and Slovenia, as well as European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič isued a communiqué Tuesday (9 December) in which they said they had “taken note” of the unofficial nature of the announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin to abandon South Stream, and tasked the commission to clarify the situation.
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But yesterday Russia dispelled hopes that the project could still be realised as initially planned, blaming Bulgaria.
Speaking to TV channel Russia 24’, Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller confirmed that the decision to abandon South Stream was final.
Referring to Putin’s visit to Turkey, Miller said that the Turkish side has been aware of Russia’s plans to abandon South Stream, but the final decision was taken during talks between Putin and his Turkish colleague Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“South Stream is cancelled. Bulgaria did not give a construction permit to build South Stream neither onshore, nor in its territorial waters and economic zone. This doesn’t concern the Third Energy Package, and the European Commission is not the one to blame in this particular situation. It is the Bulgarian government that did not provide us with the construction permits. Therefore, the definitive decision to cancel the project was made”, Miller said.
Rien à voir, donc, avec le troisième paquet énergie ni la Commission européenne. Juste du fait de la Bulgarie. Et la Bulgarie est souveraine…