Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto have agreed that the South Stream gas pipeline is a project of mutual interest for the two countries.

Speaking after Friday’s meeting with his Serbian counterpart, Szijjarto called on Russia and the European Union to resume a dialogue on the South Stream project aimed at ensuring that the investment was compatible with EU rules.

Dacic emphasized that infrastructure projects such as Pan-European Transport Corridor #10, the Belgrad-Budapest railway line, and the South Stream gas pipeline project were points of mutual interest for Hungary and Serbia.

Szijjarto, as cited by Tanjug and the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, argued that Hungary was convinced that the South Stream gas pipeline would substantially increase the security of gas supply to Central Europe, meaning that the project was important for the whole of Europe.

Dacic reminded that the cost of the construction works for the Serbian section of the South Stream gas pipeline amounted to over EUR 2 B, while Serbia was expected to receive hundreds of millions of euro a year from transit fees.

Commenting on the dispute over the compatibility of the South Stream gas pipeline with the EU’s Third Energy Package, Dacic insisted that the EU had to treat all projects equally and refrain from applying double standards.

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