The construction of the South Stream gas pipeline is of utmost interest for the Serbian economy, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said after meeting his Bulgarian counterpart Kristian Vigenin Thursday.
Dacic said he hopes an agreement concerning the construction of Gazprom's South Stream gas pipeline will be reached with the European Commission.
He said the project "is not only important for relations between Serbia and Russia, but also a question of energy security for our country" and the rest of the region that depends solely on the gas traveling across the territory of Ukraine.
Despite intergovernmental agreements that were signed with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Austria and Croatia in order to implement the onshore gas pipeline section, works on the South Stream pipeline on the territory of Bulgaria were suspended in the beginning of June 2014 at the request of the European Union (EU) that wished to check if the project was in compliance with EU law.
Vigenin expressed hope that his country will agree with the European Commission over the conditions of the realization of the project.
"In the next few weeks we will have a much clearer situation. I hope that works on the construction of the South Stream on Bulgarian territory will be continued," Vigenin said at a joint press conference.
Dacic said the construction of South Stream will be worth 2 billion euros (3.26 billion U.S. dollars) and that a significant portion of the works will be performed by Serbian companies.
He said according to an agreement with Russia's Gazprom that is not yet signed, Serbia would be freed of investing in construction and would be able to pay via the income in receives from taxation of gas transit through its territory.
"We expect that in future, incomes from tax on gas transit will reach the annual sum of several hundred million of euros," said Dacic, adding that Serbia, Bulgaria as well as other countries along the route of the pipeline would gain a lot from the deal.
"Mutual interest of Serbia and Bulgaria is that the gas pipeline South Stream gets built and that we have secure supply of energy. Mutual interest is also that we have various different sources of gas so that we would evade what happened several years ago during the gas crisis in Ukraine," the Serbian foreign minister told journalists.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/construction-south-stream-gas-pipeline-economic-issue-not-political-serbian-fm