Reuters cited Bulgaria Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski as saying to reporters that the work will be resumed if it receives necessary clearance from the European Commission.
Oresharski said after meeting US senators in Sofia that, "We will decide on further developments following consultations with Brussels."
"We will decide on further developments following consultations with Brussels," Oresharski added.
Following Bulgaria’s decision to halt gas pipeline construction, the EU has been accused by Russia for imposing "creeping" economic sanctions.
Financed by Russia’s state gas giant Gazprom, the South Stream pipeline will transfer 63 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, to Western Europe through the Balkans while avoiding Ukraine.
The European Commission claims that the pipeline would break EU competition rules and recommended work suspension to Bulgaria.
Itar-Tass news agency cited Russia’s EU envoy Vladimir Chizhov as saying that, "It is hard to shake off the feeling that the European Commission’s blocking of the start of work on the construction of Bulgaria’s key section of South Stream has been done for purely political purposes."
Image: Bulgaria halts its work on South Stream gas pipeline project. Photo: courtesy of supakitmod/Freedigitalphotos.net.
