"Energy cooperation sensitive political issue"

BELGRADE Prime Minister Ivica Dacic has said that cooperation with Russia in the energy sector is "a sensitive political and not just an economic issue." Asked by reporters of B92 TV's Insajder (Insider) investigative show, Dacic said that it was "impossible that the government approved investment in the South Stream pipeline project without having documents to show what the money was actually spent on." "Energy cooperation sensitive political issue" A new series of Insider, "Energy (dis)agreement", is currently being aired, and the first episode showed that the government does not have control of the use of the funds approved for South Stream. In the past year, the government approved a budget of EUR 105 million as guarantees for Srbijagas to take loans for the implementation of the South Stream project. The Ministry of Energy asked Srbijagas for information about what this money was mean for, but did not obtain this data. The prime minister and leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia, the party whose official Dusan Bajatovic is also Srbijagas director, said that investments in the South Stream are a sensitive political issue. "We have repeatedly discussed it, you know what, every other step of ours would be an expression of distrust toward Russia and in this sense it is a very sensitive political issue, not just economic. Of course, this does not mean that we should allow theft. I agree that we need to reduce as much as possible the space for any kind of manipulation," Dacic said. The project of the century, as politicians are presenting the South Stream gas pipeline to the citizens, will be led practically by a company registered in Switzerland in which Russian Gazprom holds a 51 percent stake, and Serbia's public company Srbijagas 49 percent. Both the previous and the current governments have already approved investment in this company, although according to Insider's research, they could not control the spending of the funds, because the main company for South Stream is registered outside the legal system of Serbia. B92: Why did the state allow it and why it continues to tolerate the fact that the company that is to build South Stream was set up in Switzerland? Ivica Dacic: The deal with the Russians reached by the governments of Kostunica and Tadic. The previous government in which we took part was not able to do anything except to continue the implementation of this, and especially this government now. Therefore, whether it is done in accordance with the highest economic interests or not, that's another matter. We also brought up this topic several times with the desire to keep everything clean, transparent, except for what the Russian side does not want to be published. From this point of view there is the idea that the company, after the construction of South Stream starts, should be moved here. The construction of the pipeline in Serbia has not even started, this should happen at the end of this year. The agreement signed by Serbia and Russia in 2008 planned for the pipeline to be completed by the end of 2015, but Gazprom said in a written statement for Insider that the deadline was moved to 2017. No sanctions for extending the deadline have been envisaged by any of the documents. B92

"Energy cooperation sensitive political issue"

A new series of Insider, "Energy (dis)agreement", is currently being aired, and the first episode showed that the government does not have control of the use of the funds approved for South Stream.

In the past year, the government approved a budget of EUR 105 million as guarantees for Srbijagas to take loans for the implementation of the South Stream project. The Ministry of Energy asked Srbijagas for information about what this money was mean for, but did not obtain this data.

The prime minister and leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia, the party whose official Dušan Bajatović is also Srbijagas director, said that investments in the South Stream are a sensitive political issue.

"We have repeatedly discussed it, you know what, every other step of ours would be an expression of distrust toward Russia and in this sense it is a very sensitive political issue, not just economic. Of course, this does not mean that we should allow theft. I agree that we need to reduce as much as possible the space for any kind of manipulation," Dačić said.

The project of the century, as politicians are presenting the South Stream gas pipeline to the citizens, will be led practically by a company registered in Switzerland in which Russian Gazprom holds a 51 percent stake, and Serbia's public company Srbijagas 49 percent.

Both the previous and the current governments have already approved investment in this company, although according to Insider's research, they could not control the spending of the funds, because the main company for South Stream is registered outside the legal system of Serbia.

B92: Why did the state allow it and why it continues to tolerate the fact that the company that is to build South Stream was set up in Switzerland?

Ivica Dačić: The deal with the Russians reached by the governments of Koštunica and Tadić. The previous government in which we took part was not able to do anything except to continue the implementation of this, and especially this government now. Therefore, whether it is done in accordance with the highest economic interests or not, that's another matter. We also brought up this topic several times with the desire to keep everything clean, transparent, except for what the Russian side does not want to be published. From this point of view there is the idea that the company, after the construction of South Stream starts, should be moved here.

The construction of the pipeline in Serbia has not even started, this should happen at the end of this year. The agreement signed by Serbia and Russia in 2008 planned for the pipeline to be completed by the end of 2015, but Gazprom said in a written statement for Insider that the deadline was moved to 2017.

No sanctions for extending the deadline have been envisaged by any of the documents.