Construction of South Stream through Serbia hasn’t been launched yet, despite it has been announced for several times. Although the major date has not been determined yet, authorities say that there are no reasons for concern.
Adoption of the Law for South Stream that has been sent to Parliament from Serbian Government on expedited basis few days ago should precede the construction. Expropriation and documentation gathering would be accelerated in that way.
As explained in local circles it was said that they don’t know exact route and that cadastre parcels are no clearly defined. They said that owners of the properties used for setting pipes will get fair compensation, but it doesn’t mean that they will enrich.
Serbian citizens should not worry about these solutions, said Minister of Energy Zorana Mihajović. These solutions were proposed because expropriation procedures can last for several years.
I am completely sure that Serbian citizens won’t be damaged, because there are certain rules and rulebooks for land evaluation so the process will be finished as soon as possible”, Zorana Mihajlović said.
Minister expects that proposed law will get certain number of votes because of citizens’ and national interest. When the law is adopted, there will be nothing that Serbia hasn’t implemented.
“To be completely clear, I heard that that maybe Government of Serbia slows down the construction, but we made agreement for South Stream, we are a part of the project and it has to be built”, Minister said.
Government supported the law which is very good, Serbia should do expropriation as soon as possible, if it wants the new pipeline to start working since 2015.
“The problem in determining the price of the land that will be paid to owners still exists. We can hope that it won’t be one more reason for postponing the work, because it doesn’t matter we didn’t start in December, but we have to begin as soon as possible, for example on spring, not wait until autumn or winter”.
Serbian part of South Stream is 1,7 billion EUR worth, while 16 billion EUR will be invested in the whole pipeline.
Source Serbia Energy Magazine/Agencies