You're reading: Oettinger confirms EU’s scepticism over South Stream, calls Ukraine main Russian gas transit country to Europe

BRUSSELS – South Stream is a new gas pipeline at the stage of a project, which from the point of view of the volumes of supplies does not change anything, European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger has said.

 “This is a new route, but this is not a new source of supplies. This is gas that will come in the same volume and will be sold by Gazprom,” Oettinger said on Wednesday in Brussels during the presentation of a new European Energy Security Strategy.

He said that the issue is being studied and the interested states are holding consultations with the European Commission.

“It’s not very clear exactly what route the pipeline would take and what volumes of gas should be transported to what member states,” he said.

He said that Austria, as one of the recipient countries, has made the next step forward.

“But South Stream would probably take about three years, probably even longer before it’s running at full capacity,” Oettinger said.

“So as far as short-term measures are concerned it’s not really an issue. It’s the transit countries such as Ukraine which are on the forefront of our concerns at present,” he said.

Referring to the continuation of negotiations on the South Stream with Bulgaria, which has an intergovernmental agreement with Russia, Oettinger said that the attention of Sofia was directed to the not full correspondence of the agreement to the European legislation.

He said that the European Commission is looking for a solution in which the gas pipeline built on the territory of Bulgaria is in line with the EU requirements.