PrintBulgaria has signed a deal with Moscow to join a major new pipeline project to bring Russian natural gas to Europe on the second day of a visit that Russian President Vladimir Putin used to lobby hard for the deal.
The pipeline would deal a blow to European hopes of reducing dependence on Russia as an energy source amid fears in Brussels that Moscow is acquiring too much economic leverage over EU members.
Speaking after the signing in Sofia, Putin said the deal will benefit European consumers by assuring new energy supplies. "I want to particularly stress that the construction of this new infrastructure does not mean a decrease in our cooperation with other transit countries," he said. "The creation of new routes ensures security, increases stability, and creates new transit capabilities for the growing supplies of energy resources to European consumers."
His remark appeared intended to address concerns in the EU that the pipeline could make member states still more dependent upon Russian energy than they are today.
Some 25 percent of the EU's natural gas already comes from Russia, fueling concerns in the union that Moscow is acquiring powerful economic influence over member states at a time when East-West tensions are on the rise.
Brussels has watched Moscow apply energy price hikes to governments in Ukraine and Georgia that try to move closer to the West. And those showdowns to the east have caused disruptions downstream in Europe itself.
But if those concerns are often heard in Brussels, Bulgarian officials did not seem to share them.
Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said that a "project of this kind means a lot more guarantees for the [energy] security of the region provided to and by all of our neighbor countries, as well as our European and international partners."
Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told reporters earlier in the day that "with this project, Bulgaria's place on the energy map of Europe is guaranteed."
Speaking shortly after the cabinet held a hasty morning meeting to approve the deal, Stanishev said Bulgaria would have a 50 percent ownership share of the company that will construct and run the pipeline on Bulgarian soil.
South Stream Vs. Nabucco
The Bulgarian decision to sign the pipeline deal today came as an unexpectedly sudden end to what has been a hot debate over whether Sofia should move closer to Moscow by joining the pipeline project, dubbed South Stream.
Bulgaria is the EU's newest member and the pipeline is a potential blow to Brussels' declared hopes of reducing European dependence on Russian energy supplies.
The EU, along with the United States, backs building a pipeline that would help diversify Europe's supplies by connecting directly to the Caspian Sea region via Turkey. That pipeline, dubbed Nabucco, would bypass Russia.
But Nabucco has been delayed by political problems and economic uncertainty, providing Moscow with an opening to now build its own new pipeline to Southern and Central Europe.
EU spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny told RFE/RL in Brussels that the union is not opposed to South Stream, but continues to consider Nabucco a priority.
"We consider that the South Stream is a pipeline that could bring supply from a traditional supplier to another part of the European Union -- so we have no opposition to that problem as it is," Tarradellas Espuny said. "But it is not considered a priority project for the European Union in the same sense as Nabucco could be.
"And I would like to underline why Nabucco is considered a priority project -- it's because it's going to bring gas from a nontraditional supplier through a different transport rout
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