Bulgarian Reformist Bloc appeals the South Stream Gas Pipeline construction permit

 

The head of the Bulgarian right-wing electoral alliance Refomist Bloc,

Radan Kanev, plans appeal the construction permit of the South Stream Gas Pipeline compressor station in the Pasha Dere area near Varna, the Bulgarian newswire, Novinite, reported Aug. 8.

“Kanev made public his intention via his Facebook profile and urged the Varna Mayor Ivan Portnih to also contest the permit,” the local media reported. “Kanev also confirmed that the appeal is to be addressed to the Administrative Court via the Regional Development Ministry.”

Kanev, who is a lawyer by trade, advised that it is likely that the court will dismiss his appeal because he is not “an interested party” in the construction of the South Stream Gas Pipeline project.

“This is why I urge the Varna mayor to file a similar complaint,” Kanev said, as cited by the newswire.

According to Kanev, some clauses in the authorized recently building permit for the construction of the compressor station causes serious concerns about the price of the project.

“No one knows how much it will cost – by the end of the year the price could be well into the billions of Bulgarian levs,” Kanev stated, as cited by Novinite.

Last week, the Bulgarian media reported that despite Sofia assurances that the South Stream Gas Pipeline project is put on hold, the former Regional Development Minister Desislava Terzieva had issued a last-minute construction permit for a compressor station and for the Pasha Dere receiving terminal.

Bulgarian caretaker Prime Minister Georgi Bliznashki declared that he had learned about the permit through local media reports ad had ordered a probe into the matter.

Photo courtesy of Stanqo.