European Commission has no formal reasons to hamper Turkish Stream construction - Russian envoy to EU

BERLIN, April 13. /TASS/. The European Commission has no formal reasons to hamper the construction of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline but is interested in keeping gas transit via Ukraine due to political reasons, Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s permanent envoy to the EU said Monday. "It is obvious that a purely political interest (of the EU) to keep gas transit via Ukraine can be a factor here", Chizhov said on the sidelines of the Valdai club conference on the European energy security. "I hope the European Commission won’t politicize this issue and we will be able to cooperate on this project", he said. In December 2014, Russian gas giant Gazprom and Turkey’s Botas signed a memorandum of understanding on constructing an offshore gas pipeline across the Black Sea towards Turkey. The pipeline capacity will be 63 bln cubic meters. Greece is also joining the project. After the meeting of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsirpas with the Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 8, Tsirpas’ government said that the Greek stretch of the Turkish Stream will be financed from private capital. Read more