South Stream will not be finished soon, if ever, Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko said during a news conference in Istanbul on June 8. "Building south Stream is very expensive and does not meet the interests of practically anyone except the those of the Russian partners who want an additional transit route. Sooner or later, the European Union will face the problem of needing to decide between NABUCCO and South Stream, as these gas pipelines serve one market", Boyko said.
In light of this, Ukraine is now insistently asking the European Union to decide which project it supports. "We recently received assurances from the EU that NABUCCO is their priority. We do not understand why some individual members of the EU are signing agreements with Russia on laying the South Stream pipeline essentially in contradiction to the EU's official position", he said.
