... was organised between the foreign ministers of Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey (Ankara being represented by Volkan Bozkir, Minister for EU Affairs). The composition... ... a project which was Russia’s reaction to the plan to halt development of the South Stream. Moreover, by all indications the group will be institutionalised and meetings... ... common gas infrastructure, using among other things the financial resources of the European Union.
In the joint declaration
on strengthening cooperation in the energy...
... significance and political severity of this step was cemented by the time and place of the decision – following talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara, at the height of the confrontation with the West over the crisis in Ukraine. The European Union stands to lose the most from the move. By itself, however, redirecting the pipeline through Turkey rather than Bulgaria does not strengthen Russia’s position on the European gas market from a strategic point of view. Rather, abandoning the South Stream project should be a good reason to start a new chapter in energy cooperation between Europe and Russia.
The decision on South Stream can easily be viewed as a reaction to Western sanctions. For years, Brussels has been pursuing an active ...
