Bulgarian MPs scrap Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline

The Members of the Parliament from the Economic Committee voted Tuesday to abandon the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project. Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, joined the sitting as well. To statements of independent and opposition MPs the outgoing Parliament should leave the decision to the next one and that motives for and against remained unclear, Djankov explained the project was unfeasible and would not receive financing. "Bulgaria is a shareholder in the construction company and is to shell USD 1.5 M to USD 2 M while the investment would pay off in 60 years and only if the pipeline is 100% secured," said he. Last Thursday, the Parliament postponed the second reading vote on the proposal for March 12. The proposal for the denunciation of the agreement was submitted last month by the country's center-right GERB government. The step comes after the expiration of Bulgaria's proposal from last year for a termination of the intergovernmental agreement by mutual consent. The Bulgarian government adopted a decision to withdraw from the oil pipeline project in early December 2011. Bulgaria's Council of Ministers noted back then that the project could not be implemented under the parameters set out in the inter-government agreement with Russia and Greece from 2007. At the end of February, Bulgaria's Parliament confirmed the country's decision to abandon another key Russian energy project, the Belene nuclear power plant. novinite