Oil & Gas Financial Journal: Russia uses South Stream gas pipeline to widen EU division

Plans for tougher economic sanctions against Russia are adding to a rift among European Union countries at the same time as there is division over Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline project, says GIS consultant Dr Frank Umbach, Senior Associate at the Centre for European Security Strategies (CESS) GmbH, Munich, Germany.

Some EU-member states and their national corporate energy champions have sided with Moscow over the pipeline dispute when the EU’s authority and common political will is already being questioned by internal disagreement over sanctions.

‘It is no coincidence that countries backing the South Stream project - Austria, Bulgaria, Italy and Hungary - are also opposing harsher sanctions,’ he says. ‘These countries do not want to risk their energy and trade ties with Russia. They prefer bilateral relations with Moscow at the expense of common EU energy security policies.’
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