In an interview with Ekathimerini, Bulgarian Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov, revealed that the capital of the nation, Sofia, is considering potential suppliers to make a proposal ‘within 12 months’ to supply Greece with energy from an emerging local power plant. 

Mr Petkov told the outlet that the aim of this proposal is to strengthen the interconnection of energy between the two countries using the IGB pipeline (a trans-boundary pipeline project involving the construction of a natural gas pipeline between Greece and Bulgaria), and natural gas reserves in the north of Greece. 

“These are two options we are interested in moving on as fast as possible, so that we have alternatives,” Mr Petkov said. 

The Prime Minister also condemned the actions of Russian President, Vladimir Putin, calling out his “unreasonable actions” and affirming the death of hundreds of innocent civilians that he said are being killed “on the altar of the imperial desires of an authoritarian leader.”

While he acknowledges that Bulgaria has close ties to the people and the culture in Russia, he separates himself and his people from the current actions being conducted by the Russian government. 

The Prime Minister stands firm in his beliefs and recently rejected Moscow’s call for NATO to withdraw from Bulgaria and Romania, he said he will not be dictated to by anyone and that as an independent state, they will make their own decisions.

Mr Petkov went on to explain why Sofia wants to be excluded from the European Union’s decision for an embargo to be placed on Russian gas imports stating that they are dependent on that energy. 

“Many European countries are taking tough measures against Russia, and even countries like Germany or Austria cannot completely rule out Russian gas, on which they are highly dependent.”

“We are more than 80% dependent on Russian energy. In essence, we would be shutting down our economy,” he said.

Source: Ekathimerini

Foreign ministers in the European Union disagreed on Monday on how to or whether to impose sanctions on Russia’s energy sector based on its recent invasion of Ukraine, with Germany stating that the nation depended too much on Russian oil to decide on this embargo. 

Many nations worldwide including in the EU and its allies have already imposed several sanctions and restrictions against Russia, including the freezing of its bank’s assets. 

The recent siege of the Mariupol port by the Russian government is the latest event to motivate action by the union with the EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrel calling these actions “a massive war crime.”

The United States and Britain have already targeted Russian oil with sanctions, although this decision for the EU is a far more divisive topic. the 27 nations included in the Union relies on Russia for 40% of its gas causing some to argue on Monday that they could not afford to impose these sanctions while others argued they may not be able to avoid this step. 

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said before this meeting “looking at the extent of the destruction in Ukraine right now, it’s very hard to make the case that we shouldn’t be moving in on the energy sector, particularly oil and coal.”

Germany and the Netherlands responded to this though acknowledging that the EU was dependent on Russian oil and gas and would not be able to make a snap call on how to proceed without causing damage to their own economies. 

“The question of an oil embargo is not a question of whether we want or don’t want it but a question of how much we depend on oil,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. 

She went on to explain the complexities of the dependence on Russian oil by saying “Germany is importing a lot (of Russian oil) but there are also other member states who can’t stop the oil imports from one day to the other. If we could, we would do it automatically,”

There is a European split as to how to proceed in response to the recent invasion of Ukraine, although there is also the threat of higher increases on oil and energy on top of already increasing prices. 

Some sanctions would prove disastrous for smaller countries with a larger dependency on the oil giant, with Moscow already warning that such sanctions could prompt it to close a gas pipeline to Europe. Something that many nations wish to avoid. 

No decision on potential energy sanctions will occur at this point of the meetings as there are more conversations to be expected during the next week or so, with U.S. President Joe Biden arriving in Brussels on Wednesday for more talks with other EU nations and NATO’s 30 members on how to proceed with a tougher response from the West towards Moscow.

The Kremlin has not been deterred so far by these EU sanctions, which include 685 Russians and Belarusians and on Russian finance and trade. With a fifth round of sanctions to include more names on the EU blacklist, it is expected that nations will unite to strengthen the response to the war on Ukraine. 

Source: Ekathimerini, Reuters