The right-wing Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) party has described the South Stream gas pipeline project as the "second huge corruption-ridden project of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the Kremlin and the energy mafia."

At a Monday press conference, DSB representatives described South Stream as a corruption-ridden project of the scale of the Belene nuclear power plant (NPP) project, adding that the scheme was patently injurious to Bulgaria's national interests.

To illustrate their point, DSB members pointed out that Bulgaria was not going to receive any money at all for 15 years in a row and all revenues generated by the gas pipeline during the period would go to Russian energy giant Gazprom.

DSB announced that Bulgaria would lose some EUR 400 M for the same period due to the closure of the functioning section from the Romanian border to the northeastern city of Provadia after the completion of the construction works on the South Stream pipeline.

DSB claimed that Bulgaria would have to pay huge penalties to the EU due to the infringement of the requirement to reserve up to half of capacity for third party suppliers.

"As of 2008, the three-way coalition government gave the entire capacity to Gazprom," the right-wing party specified.

DSB reasoned that Bulgaria would not even be able to use the gas quantities it had purchased from other countries.

The right-wing formation noted that the funding for the project was unrelated to market conditions.

DSB also reminded that the price tag of South Stream had increased from EUR  1.1 B to EUR 3.3 B in 5 years without any explanation.

DSB argued that South Stream was a threat to Bulgaria's Euro-Atlantic orientation in political terms.

DSB asked Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski why Bulgaria was being forced into investing over B in a foreign project whose management prevented the country from defending its national interest.

The right-wing formation insisted that the government was not supposed to greenlight the launch of construction of the Bulgarian section of the South Stream gas pipeline until the stance of the European Commission on the violations of EU laws was clear and the elimination of the irregularities had been guaranteed.

DSB also insisted that Bulgaria had to wait until the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the undersea section of the pipe, as well as the investment project and the investment scheme, were available.

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