/ world today news/ Europe will not last long without Russian natural gas, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a meeting with heads of member companies of the European Business Association.
“Everyone perfectly understands that without Russian gas, Europe will not last long. They are trying to convince you, including from across the ocean, that you should reorient to supplies of shale gas from the United States,” emphasized the Russian first diplomat.
“The main thing is not to politicize this issue and not to allow politicians to make decisions that put politics before the economy. We don’t ask our partners for anything more, but to take a position that will actually secure their economic interests,” Sergey pointed out Lavrov.
Russia is counting on the European Commission to consider the interests of citizens and businesses when deciding on the implementation of South Stream.
“I trust that the EC will give up its approach related to political commitment to the facility and will comply with the interests of the population and businesses in the EU countries,” he commented, quoted by RIA “Novosti”.
Lavrov also added that he hopes Brussels will take into account the position of the countries participating in the project, which have repeatedly spoken out in favor of the realization of “South Stream”. The Russian Foreign Minister also commented that Europe will not be able to does without supplies of natural gas from Russia.
For Lavrov, the “hour of truth” in relations between the EU and Russia is coming, when it must be decided whether the two countries are strategic partners or geopolitical rivals, writes the BBC.
The EU and Russia are at loggerheads over the legality of South Stream, with Brussels arguing that the pipeline does not comply with European legislation and directives on the liberalization of the energy market.
Meanwhile, the construction of the facility in Bulgaria was frozen following a criminal procedure by the EC. The Commission’s doubts are that the procedure for selecting a builder in our country was non-transparent.
At the beginning of 2014, talks began between Brussels and Moscow on the compatibility of “South Stream” with European rules, but only a few months later they were interrupted after the escalation of tensions in Ukraine. The EU, for its part, also imposed a number of sanctions against Russia in connection with what is happening in Ukraine.
Part of the sanctions are financial, limiting Russian companies to international debt markets. For this reason, Gazprom also calculated that the project will cost up to 23.5 billion euros, compared to the current 16 billion euros.
The EC has repeatedly commented that there is no way to stop the construction of the gas pipeline, but they can prohibit the commissioning of the pipes if all requirements are not met.
So far, the Commission also does not recognize South Stream as a priority for the community, especially against the background of the fact that the facility will only diversify the routes of Russian natural gas to Europe, but will not lead to diversification of sources, which is the main goal of EU in preparing the strategy for the new gas corridors.
Copied from standartnews.com
#Lavrov #Europe #long #Russian #gas
