Word: bulgaria
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...Bulgaria's incoming Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov can assume copious congratulations when he takes up the reins of government on July 23. Less welcome, however, is what he received on the eve of his investiture: a report effectively designating Bulgaria the most corrupt and crime-ridden member of the European Union. And for good measure, it warned that Bulgaria, already the E.U.'s poorest member state, could slip under the sway of Russia if it fails to turn itself around...
...inherit a country where mobsters murder with impunity and where fraud and corruption have seeped deep into the political and legal establishment. "Killings linked with organized crime continue, and known criminals are not apprehended," the commission says in its report, released on July 21. (Read "Brussels Beats Up On Bulgaria...
...five countries that signed the agreement - Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria - have been working on the ambitious $11 billion Nabucco project for seven years. The development of the pipeline, which will run initially from the Turkish capital to Baumgarten in Austria, has been beset by political bickering. But if completed as planned by 2015, the line could bring up to 31 billion cu m of gas a year from the Caspian Sea and the Middle East across Turkey and into Europe. (See pictures of Obama in Europe...
...still only about 10% of the E.U.'s gas demand. By contrast, Russia exports 140 billion cu m of gas to the E.U. every year. But Nabucco could break Russia's stranglehold over countries that are most dependent on its gas and most vulnerable during winter cutoffs, such as Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania. That dependence has also long undermined the E.U.'s efforts to create a common market for European energy, with transparent pricing and a single negotiating stance with suppliers like Russia...
...insists it is a reliable partner and blames Ukraine, which transits 80% of its gas exports, for the recent winter spats. Moscow's solution is to bypass Ukraine and supply Western Europe directly through the Nord Stream pipeline (to Germany, via the Baltic Sea) and the South Stream (to Bulgaria, via the Black Sea). But that would do nothing to ease the E.U.'s reliance on Russian gas, and most E.U. leaders don't see it as a viable option. Last month Barroso warned that "the E.U. must not sleepwalk into another gas crisis...