Bulgaria’s New Coalition and the Future of South Stream

... had a convenient excuse not to do anything: Bulgaria having decided to freeze the construction of the pipeline, following a European Commission threat of initiating infringement procedures. Bulgarian tenders for building the pipeline did not fulfill European Union criteria, and the project itself was not in line with the EU’s Third Energy Package stipulating third-party access. From the point of view of Bulgaria, South Stream has one major flaw. Projected to cost up to €7 million per kilometer, observers claim that South Stream will cost more than twice what a similar pipeline would cost in Germany, for instance. The difference between the market price and ...