BRUSSELS, June 08. /ITAR-TASS/. Brussels does not rule out that consultations between Russia and the European Union on the situation around the South Stream project could be held on Monday, June 9, a source in the European institutions told Itar-Tass on Sunday.
Earlier on Sunday, Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski ordered to suspend works on the South Stream project over the European Commission’s infringement proceedings. He announced this at a briefing after a meeting with American Senators. Oresharski said the project’s future would be clarified “after additional consultations with Brussels.” He said he had ordered “to stop works on the construction, or to be more precise on the project, since the actual construction [of the South Stream pipeline] had not yet started.”
“It can be expected that this issue would be raised on Monday on the sidelines of the trilateral consultations in Brussels between Europe, the European Union and Ukraine on the Ukrainian debts for Russian gas,” the source said.
When asked whether Ukraine would take part in the discussion of the South Stream problem, the source said, “Highly unlikely.” “The situation around the South Stream is discussed in the bilateral format between the European Union and Russia.”
On Sunday, representatives of the European Commission and the Russian energy ministry said that a three-party meeting between European Commissioner for Energy Guenther Oettinger, Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak and Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan would be held on Monday, June 9 in Brussels. The talks would involve CEO of Russia’s gas monopolist Gazprom Alexei Miller and CEO of Ukraine’s gas utility Naftogaz Andrei Kobolev who had had bilateral consultations last week in a bid to settle a number of outstanding problems.