Bulgarian parliament ratifies Nabucco

Bulgarian parliament ratified the agreement between Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey for the construction of the Nabucco pipeline project. The ratification was concluded after one hour and a half of debates in the plenary hall where all political parties announced that they supported the construction of the pipeline but argued whose contribution to the project was the biggest.

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Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Traicho Traykov announced that the first phase was expected to be completed in 2015, the second phase in 2017 and in 2020 the pipeline should work with full capacity. So far, the agreement had been ratified only by Hungary but its ratification is at advanced stage in other countries as well.

Left-oriented political party Coalition for Bulgaria said that they supported the project because it was an expression of the common policy for diversification of energy sources – in particular natural gas –, adding that this policy had been started during the socialist government rule of the former Prime Minister. The right-oriented ruling party Blue Coalition opposed, saying that the socialists started working on this project only after the 16 days last winter when gas supplies were cut for many EU countries.

PHOTO: iStockphoto

Members of the parliament outlined the main issues regarding Nabucco – guarantee of the natural gas sources on one side and its consumption on the other side. They confirmed their will to continue working on other energy projects as well, in particular on South Stream. Members of the socialist party reminded that only 15 million cubic meters of gas was dedicated to the transit countries, which amounted to between two and 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas for Bulgaria. According to Sergey Stanishev, this will not suffice at all. Yet, all political parties agreed that the ratification of the respective agreement was an enormous step towards the end of the Russian gas monopoly.

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