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6/9/14

Energy-Gas: Bulgaria halts South Stream ‘pending consultations with EU’

Bulgaria has stopped all activities linked to the building of the South Stream gas pipeline project pending full compliance of the project with European Union law, Plamen Oresharski, occupant of the prime minister’s chair in the embattled Bulgarian Socialist Party cabinet, said on June 8 2014.

Oresharski made the announcement in Sofia after talks with three visiting United States senators, six days after it emerged that the European Commission was launching an infringement procedure against Bulgaria on suspicion that Bulgaria breached internal market rules on public procurement in picking Russia’s Stroytransgaz and a consortium of five Bulgarian firms to carry out construction of the Bulgarian section of the pipeline without a public procurement tender.

The US underlined its stance on June 6 with a statement by Washington’s ambassador in Sofia, Marcie Ries, warning that companies or individuals that provide material support to Stroytransgaz – the company to which Bulgaria awarded the contract to build the land section of the South Stream pipeline in the country – could be subject to US sanctions.

Oresharski, nominal head of a government that is teetering under enormous political pressure and that is widely expected to give way for long-demanded fresh elections some time before the end of 2014, said that he had ordered the suspension of all activities related to the start of South Stream while consultations with the European Commission were underway.

Readmore: Bulgaria halts South Stream ‘pending consultations with EU’ | The Sofia Globe

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