South Stream driving wedge between EU and Balkan hopefuls

BRUSSELS - Macedonia has become the latest Western Balkan country to receive a stark warning on the implications of building Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline for its EU future.

Janez Kopac, the head of the European Energy Community (EEC), said on Thursday (23 October) that Skopje’s South Stream agreement with Moscow is “not in compliance” with EU energy law.

He noted that as an EEC treaty signatory it has “a legally binding commitment to implement these rules”.

He added, in comments to the dtt-net.com news agency, that “Macedonia will have to withdraw from the IGA [the South Stream accord] or renegotiate it if it wants to become a full EU member”.

The EEC is a Vienna-based body which counts all 28 EU states, the Western Balkan EU-aspirants, as well as Moldova and Ukraine among its members.

South Stream is to carry Russian gas under the Black Sea via Bulgaria and Serbia to the heart of the EU. But a potential branch line might also run via Macedonia to Italy.

The EU says its current model goes against EU laws designed to stop monopolies from inflating prices.

Kopac spoke after a senior Gazprom executive met with Macedonian energy officials in Skopje earlier the same day.

Both sides later voiced confidence the branch line project will go ahead as planned.

For its part, the European Commission on 30 September wrote to Macedonia to voice its own concerns on South Stream.

“South Stream, as any other major infrastructure project in Europe, may only be developed and operated fully in line with EU law”, an EU official said.

“Pipelines developed and operated in conflict with EU law endanger the functioning of the internal market”.

The EEC and EU complaints come after similar criticism of Bosnia and Serbia.

“It should be clear from the beginning that Serbia cannot accede to the EU without bringing this [South Stream] agreement into compliance”, the EEC’s Kopac told EUobserver earlier this month.

Russia has said it hopes to hammer out a compromise on the situation with the EU.

It is also pressing ahead with construction of the under-sea portion of the project despite the dispute.

Meanwhile, EU leaders at a summit in Brussels also on Friday, fretted over how to improve the Union’s energy security in light of its gas dependence on Russia.

Among other provisions, their draft conclusions say that the “Southern Gas Corridor” is a “critical project of common interest … to ensure diversification of energy suppliers”.

The southern corridor is a competing scheme to South Stream which aims to bring gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe, bypassing Russia.

In light of Kopac’s strong words, the draft conclusions also say EU states will “further strengthen the Energy Community”.