Kiev protesters gather, EU dangles aid promise

[dipsydoodle]

7. The future looks even dimmer when the South Stream pipeline comes online.

South Stream bi-passes a lot of the the need for gas to be routed through the Ukraine into the EU.

EU to renegotiate South Stream gas pipeline with Russia.

EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger is to visit Moscow next month to renegotiate South Stream gas pipeline deals on behalf of several member states, he said Thursday. The announcement comes days after the European Commission told the countries through which the pipeline is to pass that the deals they had struck with Russia are in violation of EU law.

"We have been given a mandate by the member states to negotiate in their name with the Russian partners," Oettinger said at a meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels.

The countries he is to negotiate on behalf of are Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria, Greece and non-EU member Serbia, which applies EU laws in its energy sector, Oettinger said.

The 2,380-kilometre gas pipeline is to stretch from southern Russia to southern Italy and will also supply gas to Greece and Austria from 2015.

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_12/EU-to-renegotiate-South-Stream-gas-pipeline-with-Russia-1412/