Bulgaria will decide in November whether to push ahead or abandon major energy projects it had committed to, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said yesterday.
The new center-right government, which won elections in July, is reviewing plans for a new nuclear power plant as well as its participation in Russian-backed gas and oil pipelines, to see whether they match national interests.On Tuesday, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged the European Union’s newest member to speed up the review and said that if any of the Russian projects were annulled, Moscow would find alternatives.
“Until November we will be ready with the review and then we will tell how much it (each project) costs, whether it is advantageous or not,” Borisov told a state national TV channel in a comment on his meeting with Putin in Poland on Tuesday. Borisov said the Balkan country will keep its commitments for the Russian-backed South Stream gas pipeline project, aimed at delivering gas to Europe under the Black Sea, bypassing Ukraine.
(KATHIMERINI, 09/03/2009)