Gazprom's $12.7 billion South Stream gas pipeline should be exempted from the European Union's third energy package, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Friday.
An updated Russian proposal arguing that the functioning Nord Stream pipeline and the planned South Stream pipeline should receive special treatment because they straddle both EU and non-EU countries will be submitted during the Russia-EU Summit in Brussels next week.
The European Union's third energy package seeks to liberalize the continent's gas market by splitting companies' production and retail operations from their transmission networks.
"The status of projects like South Stream and Nord Stream is completely different from the status of pipeline projects within Europe," Novak told reporters.
The South Stream will run through countries including Russia and Serbia that are not members of the European Union, he added.
Novak was speaking two days after a meeting with EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger in Cyprus and a week after Russia officially launched the first phase of South Stream construction near Anapa on the Black Sea coast — a ceremony that Oettinger did not attend.
There will be a meeting between the European Commission, the Energy Ministry, German market regulators and affected companies about the third energy package next week, Novak said.
The Russia-EU Summit on Dec. 21 is expected to be attended by President Vladimir Putin.
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