Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó have reacted strongly to Bulgaria’s decision to introduce new, huge transit fees of €10.2 per MW/h of natural gas passing through the Bulgarian extension of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline to Western Europe – the so-called “Balkan Stream”.
  • alvvayson@lemmy.worldEnglish
    48·
    1 year ago

    I suspect this is coordinated with the rest of the EU.

    Hungary and Serbia were notoriously not cooperating with the sanctions regime, so this is probably the alternative legal solution.

    • Aqarius@lemmy.worldEnglish
      75·
      1 year ago

      Is it really “not cooperating” if you’re just not in the block in the first place?

      • awwwyissssEnglish
        28·
        1 year ago

        They’re taking a few billion in aid from the EU on their path to joining so I think cooperating is a good term here.

        Block bloc

      • sheppard@feddit.ukEnglish
        221·
        1 year ago

        Unfortunately for the EU, Hungary is part of of block.

        Regarding Serbia, if you’re applying, you should behave like a perfect member. Croatia and Estonia are notoriously known to have implemented EU directive as candidates, before the directive were even voted.

        • Aqarius@lemmy.worldEnglish
          51·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, applied 15 years ago, with the current status of “in a decade, maybe”. It’s just funny how after 4 years of “no more enlargement, EU’s full, structural reform first” suddenly everyone’s pretending like Serbia was on the cusp of membership instead of basically being Turkey 2.

  • albert180@feddit.deEnglish
    38·
    1 year ago

    Well, if I was Bulgaria I would also want to pay off this pipeline ASAP, in the current environment it’s a high risk investment.

    Bulgaria expects the new transit fees to generate additional revenues of €1.2 billion. The new fee is so high that it will pay off the construction of the Balkan Stream gas pipeline in just one year.