“I can’t see where the South Stream is being hindered, on contrary the whole is country engaged to solve this as soon as possible. I don’t know what does the state forget to do”, state secretary from ministry of energy Stanojevic said when he was commenting statements of certain medias that President of Gasprom Managing Board, Aleksey Miller, said “individuals are trying to obstruct gas agreement between Serbia and Russia and implementation of big business “South Stream” during last week’s visit to Serbia.
Stanojevic reminded that Serbian Government adopted a special law for “South Stream”, made an agreement for long-term supply of the country with Russian gas and that guaranty for credit of necessary 160 million EUR is provided.
He said that there were no influences from EU on Serbia with reference to the question of the project realization, as he knows.
When he was answering the question why the law for South Stream defined this project as the project of official not national interest as it has been announced earlier and if this direction can cause different interpretations that can reflect project realization efficiency, Stanojevic said that there is no concept of “national project” in Serbian legal system but that it can only be “the project of public interest”.
This law was adopted in order to accelerate works on South Stream and clearly show that the whole country thinks that this is its priority and that all procedures should be accelerated that way as he said in way that is not recorder in Serbian history”, Stanojevic stressed.
He emphasized that two things need to be separated- it is the one thing what Ministry does which is legal part of the job for South Stream and another is responsibility of Srbijagas.
Srbijagas will finish conceptual plan for South Stream soon. This company must finish general project and then to get location permissions and credits, to announce tenders and to collect all required material and then works can begin- Stanojevic stated.
He underlined that works on some parts of South Stream can begin before getting construction permissions so some works of South Stream through Serbia like compressor stations’ construction can begin earlier.
Source; Serbia Energy/MERZ