Juergen Roth: EU Is Exceedingly Cautious Regarding Gazprom

Juergen Roth, one of Germany's most renowned publicists and investigative journalists, shared with Novinite his observations on Europe's approach to South Stream.

Since 1971, Roth has made a number of TV documentaries and has published many acclaimed books. Among them is a recent one on Gazprom (Gazprom: Das unheimliche Imperium) in 2012, but also many including analyses on oligarchy and organized crime in Eastern Europe.

In 2008, he divided opinions in Bulgaria with his book Die neuen Dämonen (which could be translated as The New Demons) dealing with crime, corruption and lacking rule of law in the country.

The EU Commission has insisted that the South Stream project be frozen until it complies with European norms. Why, in your opinion, did it launch an infringement procedure only against Bulgaria? Is the urgency to stop the project the only reason?

An infringement procedure is being launched against Bulgaria because - for whatever non-transparent reasons - a consortium around Stroytransgaz has received the order for the pipeline from the Bulgarian government. It seems there are issues of competitiveness here, especially in the assessment of the tender. It is though strange enough that Stroytransgaz, behind which the Rotenberg brothers stand, closest friends of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, won the procurement. What is more, it is inadmissible, under EU rules, that the gas supplier controls the access to the pipelines as well. This could have been long known. A substantial reason is of course the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

Do you expect that the Commission might also find problems with...