Gas pipeline infrastructure. Photo supplied

Europe’s energy under threat

An ongoing Bulgarian legal circus is threatening Europe’s energy diversity.

Published: August 14, 2019, 8:01 am

    Read more

    In times of global challenges in many respects – from climate change to economic and political uncertainty, Southern Europe is facing another serious threat. It is a threat to its energy security, which may lead to serious cross-national tensions and dramatic consequences for Europe.

    One of key contributors to this threat is the political and economic crisis in Ukraine. This country, riddled by endemic corruption, political division and a raging war in its rebellious region of Donbass, is in the process of forming a new government in the aftermath of parliamentary elections held in mid-July.

    Ukraine is of crucial importance as an energy corridor for Europe. Its inability to deal with domestic problems and guarantee its role as reliable transit hub, together with an uncertain future facing its contractual obligations with Russian supplier Gazprom, present a real threat for the coming winter months.

    The scourge of Ukrainian corruption and private interests of oligarchs that have taken precedence over public interests seem to be spreading to other countries of Europe. Bulgaria is yet another fresh victim of such corruption.

    The reason why these irregular activities have taken root, is because the Bulgarian leg of the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline extension was supposed to become one of the main routes for gas supply to Southern Europe, contributing to the diversity of gas supplies to Serbia, Hungary, Croatia and other countries of the region.

    The 480km pipeline will run between Turkey and Serbia across Bulgaria, offering an efficient route for gas transit and reducing the dependence of the region on transit of gas from Ukraine.

    However, its quite possible that this particular pipeline will not see completion until 2021-2022. The reason for the delay is continued and bitter legal disputes between Bulgartransgaz and the ARKAD consortium, led by Arkad Engineering from Saudi Arabia.

    The story behind this lawsuit is quite a peculiar one. ARKAD won the tender for construction by offering the lowest price, which came as a surprise to ARKAD’s opponents from the Gas Development and Extension in Bulgaria (GDEB) consortium. ARKAD had offered to build the 474,7km expansion for 1,1 billion euro by the end of 2020, compared to 1,6 billion euro offered by its rival.

    The most likely reason for ARKAD’s victory was assistance from politically connected Bulgarian oligarchs. Despite the success of the tender, Bulgartransgaz and Arkad Engineering were unable to sign a contract because the Saudi firm did not provide all the paperwork required by law, despite several postponements granted by Bulgartransgaz.

    In the meantime GDEB told Bulgartransgaz that it was prepared to offer a 31,1 percent discount on the price it originally offered to match ARKAD’s price. Given those factors and the importance of the project, Bulgartransgaz said that it was amending its initial decision and awarded the construction contract to the Bonatti-Max Streicher consortium.

    ARKAD acted quickly and filed a complaint against Bulgartransgaz’s decision to disqualify it as winner to the Bulgarian competition authority.

    CPC, the anti-monopoly body tasked with ruling on public procurement disputes, said that Bulgartransgaz’s decision was unlawful because it did not meet the legal requirements necessary for the company to modify its tender award decision.

    In early July, the GDEB Consortium appealed the CPC’s decision before the Supreme Administrative Court, reopening the legal dispute. As result, the construction will be delayed. The delay on the Bulgarian section means Gazprom will only be able to use TurkStream to ship its gas to Bulgaria and from Bulgaria to Greece, Macedonia and Romania via the existing network.

    For the time being, Serbia, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia will therefore still remain entirely reliant on the Ukrainian route. Lack of transparency in the tender process have left many wondering what happened to a clear and transparent project that was supposed to deliver gas to their homes and keep them warm in winter.

    The bigger strategic issue is however whether the EU is indeed committed to diversifying its energy supply routes in order to reduce dependence on unreliable political factors. One would expect that the EU’s new leadership will take corruption in the energy sector very seriously and adopt a position of zero tolerance against insider shady deals, which negatively impact the lives millions of Europeans.

    Consider donating to support our work

    Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.

    Keep ​your language polite​. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in​,​ for example​, ​Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.

    If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violation​s​ of​ any​ law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.

    If your comments are subject to preview ​by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.

    We reserve the right to del​ete​ comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.

    No comments.

    By submitting a comment you grant Free West Media a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin’s discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.

    Europe

    New App Helps Locate Sweden’s Historic Runestones

    A new app called Swedish Runestones will help locate historical gems.

    Swedish military wants to remilitarize the Åland Islands

    The demilitarized autonomy has previously been known as 'the islands of peace.

    DESTRUCTIVE HAILSTORMS will become more frequent and violent with increasingly larger hail, predicted solar researcher Valentina Zharkova back in 2019 when she stated that it's one of many signs of an impending Grand Solar Minimum. This is exactly what we have witnessed this year in both Europe and the world. Here is the German town of Benediktbeuern in Bavaria after a hailstorm on August 26th. Almost all rooftops and cars were damaged. The centuries-old church and monastery were damaged for the first time ever. Interestingly, the monastery was rebuilt in 1699 during the Maunder Minimum. Combined with heavy rainfall, extreme weather will devastate a significant portion of our food production. For instance, heavy rainfall destroyed a quarter of all crops in Greece in just two days in September. However, mainstream media remains silent. Photo: X @safe0007/Sandor Feher

    NOAA Predicts Zero Sunspots for Almost the Whole 2030s

    CLIMATEThe United States' government scientific organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), predicts zero sunspots from 2031 to 2040. This is an extreme situation that has not occurred in as long as humanity has been counting sunspots, and it leads us into uncharted territory in terms of our solar system. However, this prediction aligns with the warnings of the world-renowned solar researcher Valentina Zharkova for many years, who indicated in 2019 various signs of this catastrophic phenomenon, including the extreme hailstorms we have seen in Europe and the world this summer. The forecast and various observations this year give cause for very significant concern. In this unique analysis, Free West Media explains why.

    NATIONALIST COLLABORATION TAKES SHAPE. Six parties met in Budapest on August 26th to sign a joint declaration confirming the friendship and political unity among the parties. The goal is to either form a new group in the European Parliament after the EU elections in June next year or to reconstitute the existing Identity and Democracy (ID) group with the new parties. Pictured from left to right: Mikael Jansson (Alternative for Sweden), Thierry Baudet (Forum for Democracy, Netherlands), László Toroczkai (Mi Hazánk, Hungary), Kostadin Kostadinov (Vazrazhdane, Bulgaria), and Josef Nerušil (Svoboda a přímá demokracie, Czech Republic). Also included is Mass-Voll from the non-EU country Switzerland (inset image). Photo: Free West Media

    European Nationalist Parties Forge Cooperation Ahead of EU Elections

    EUROPEAN ELECTIONSOn Saturday, August 26, representatives of six European nationalist parties gathered in Budapest. The meeting was initiated by the Hungarian party Mi Hazánk and took place in the national parliament. Representatives of the parties signed a joint declaration that not only reaffirms the parties' friendship but also their unity on a range of complex political issues. A surprisingly clear and radical manifesto was established. The hope is that this cooperation will lead to success in the EU elections and eventually result in the formation of a group in the European Parliament. For Swedish nationalism, this meeting marks a success as Sweden, for the first time, has a party represented in a leading nationalist cooperation in Europe. Free West Media was present at this historic event.

    Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson participated in the Pride parade in Stockholm where Erdogan was ridiculed, something that Turkey took particularly badly. Photo: Nya Tider

    Turkey Believes Sweden Hasn’t Done Enough

    Sweden will have to wait a bit longer for NATO membership, according to Turkey's Justice Minister Jilmaz Tunc. First, Sweden must extradite the "terrorists" Turkey wants and stop the desecration of the Quran.

    Ka-52 crashes after being hit by a Swedish RBS 70. Russian sources report that one of the two pilots died in the crash. Image: Telegram

    Swedish Weapon Takes Down Russia’s Best Attack Helicopter

    The Russian attack helicopter Ka-52 is considered one of the world's best and has struck fear in Ukraine, where it has hunted down tanks and other armored vehicles, often beyond the range of many light anti-aircraft systems. However, it has met its match in the Swedish air defense missile system RBS 70, which has quickly led to significant losses for the Russian helicopter forces.

    The Sun has been found to be the main driver behind Earth's cliamte - and it's getting colder. Photo: iStockPhoto

    The Sun Drives Earth’s Climate, Not Carbon Dioxide

    Top Researchers Push Back Against Climate Lies."The correlation is as clear as day," explained the Israeli astrophysicist Nir Shaviv, who was hailed by the establishment, before his interview with Forbes was hastily deleted. What he says contradicts the climate narrative, which points to humans as responsible for Earth's climate. Shaviv firmly asserts that it is the sun that controls the climate, something that can be scientifically proven in many ways. Contrary to the popular belief, the sun's influence on Earth has, in recent years, caused unusually cold and rainy weather, a trend that solar researchers warn will worsen significantly in the coming decades. The sun has exhibited an unusually low activity since 2016, during Solar Cycle 24, which was the weakest in a century.

    Alternative for Germany held its conference during the last weekend of July in the thousand-year-old city of Magdeburg, located by the Elbe River in the eastern German state of Saxony. The first of the two conference days began with a strong program speech by the party's male spokesperson. Subsequently, party officials were elected and motions were addressed. The second day was entirely devoted to candidate selection and positioning for the EU election in June next year. Screenshot: AfD on Facebook

    Strong Confidence in German AfD

    Alternative for Germany (AfD) held a party conference on July 29-30 to select candidates for the upcoming EU election next year. EU Parliament member Maximilian Krah, belonging to the party's more radical, ethnonationalist faction, was appointed as the top candidate. The party's two spokespersons delivered powerful speeches criticizing the EU's failed migration policy and trade sanctions that isolate Europe and Germany from the rest of the world. They argued that it's time for the EU to return a significant portion of its power to national parliaments. However, they have dropped the demand for Germany to exit the EU.

    Maximilian Krah is one of the AfD politicians who is singled out as an ethnonationalist, as he has stated that there is a distinction between ethnic Germans and immigrants who have obtained German citizenship. Krah is a Member of the European Parliament and AfD's top candidate for the upcoming European Union election next year. Still image: AfD on Facebook

    The Establishment Wants to Ban Germany’s Second Largest Party – for the Sake of Democracy

    The rising popularity of AfD has raised strong concerns within the establishment. Despite lies and demonization in the media and isolation from the overall political establishment, the party continues to grow. Certain representatives of the party are accused of becoming increasingly "extreme," and in an unusual move, the influential weekly newspaper Der Spiegel demanded that AfD be "banned."

    FvD was quick to support the protests against covid restrictions. Today, the party also stands behind the farmers protests against the governments’ plans to close a big portion of the farms in the country for the sake of “climate”. The picture is from a protest against covid restrictions in Amsterdam in January of last year. Photo: Wion

    Dutch FvD break through the media blockade

    What is happening in the Netherlands? It is often difficult to follow events in other countries, especially when distorted by system media. We give Forum for Democracy (FvD) the opportunity to speak out on the political situation in the Netherlands and the staunch resistance they face in trying to save the country.

    Go to archive