The government said it has no intention to renegotiate the bilateral deal with Russia on the construction of the Slovenian section of the South Stream pipeline for now as it has not yet received an official answer from the European Commission to an invitation to a meeting to discuss the latest developments.
The statement from the Infrastructure and Spatial Development ministry comes after the Commission said yesterday that bilateral agreements for the construction of the pipeline concluded between Russia and six member states, including Slovenia, are all in breach of EU law and need to be renegotiated from scratch.
The Commission already discussed the issue with the member states in August, which was followed by a meeting which decided that the Commission should inform Russia of the need for new negotiations.
A relevant letter was sent to Russia two days ago, according to the spokesperson of European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger.
Slovenia meanwhile answered to the Commission in the first half of November. "In relation to this issue we also expect a bilateral meeting. So far Slovenia has not received an official answer, which is why it is not considering renegotiations with Russia," the ministry said.
According to the ministry, the Slovenian agreement with Russia will not be in violation of the EU law when Slovenia transposes the third energy package, which will be secured with the passage of the new energy law, which is in the parliamentary procedure.
The circumstances of the project are not changed, because the 2009 agreement says that the national legislation of Slovenia needs to be respected during the construction of the pipeline section on the Slovenian territory, the ministry added.
Source: SloveniaTimes
