Électricité de France

By Chryssa Liaggou

French energy giant Electricite de France (EDF) expressed last week its interest in the privatization of Greece’s Public Power Corporation (PPC), just as the government is poised to sell off part of the electricity company under a scheme dubbed “Small PPC.”

Russia’s Energy Minister Aleksander Novak revealed that the South Stream gas pipeline project is moving forward.

“Russia continues realizing the project in compliance with the intergovernmental agreements. The work cannot be suspended”, Novak said, quoted by ITAR-TASS.

Economy and Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev has vowed that Bulgaria will fight for the implementation of the South Stream gas pipeline project.

Stoynev told journalists Thursday that Bulgaria would comply with the decisions of the European Commission but it would seek a financial mechanism for the countries which would be negatively affected by the move.

Turkey would consider the possibility that the South Stream gas pipeline could pass through its territory if Russia makes a request, the country's Energy Minister said Wednesday.

Taner Yildiz announced that Turkey was "open to assessing any request for the line to pass" through its land, Hurriyet Daily News quoted him as saying.

The South Stream-Bulgaria company has assured that work on the local section of the gas pipeline project continues.

The comments of the South Stream-Bulgaria company, as cited by ITAR-TASS, came after the announcement of the European Parliament that the project should not be implemented.

The planned South Stream pipeline project is a display of the excellent relations the Kremlin has with the Bulgarian government, according to an article published in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

The decision taken by Bulgaria's government in March regarding the South Stream was astonishing, the author, Florian Hassel, argues.

Leonid Chugunov, head of the Russian gas and oil giant's Project Management Department, said basic construction and assembly works of the South Stream pipeline are expected to start at the end of the second quarter of 2014, according to the timetable.

Gazprom: South Stream works continue in summer

BELGRADE -- The South Stream gas pipeline project in Serbia will this year enter its active implementation stage, a Gazprom official has said.

BELGRADE - The South Stream gas pipeline project in Serbia will this year enter its active implementation stage, with basic construction and assembly works expected to start at the end of the second quarter of 2014, according to an adopted timetable, the head of Gazprom's Project Management Department Leonid Chugunov has said.

Aleksandar Vucic, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister, said that Serbia was preserving vital national interests with regard to the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline in cooperation with Russia.

"Serbia will protect its interests, but we are not the major player and we do not get to decide on the most important issues," Vucic said on Wednesday.