Russia sanctions.

Caspian Sea to Southern and Central Europe) goes ahead, it said yesterday. Bulgaria will launch a feasibility study next year on building a 1.5-billion-euro hub in the Black Sea port of Varna that would use gas pipeline links it is already building with neighboring Greece, Serbia, Romania and Turkey, and eventually also an undersea pipeline from Russia. Cypriot gas supplies could flow through the pipeline that Bulgaria is building with Greece and Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said Sofia is ready to boost its capacity if needed, after meeting her Cypriot counterpart Giorgos Lakkotrypis in Nicosia. “Natural gas from Cyprus is one of the options to feed the natural gas hub,” the Energy Ministry quoted Petkova as saying.

European Union leaders will next month explore the possibility of improving strained ties with Russia in response to growing irritation among some member-states over economic sanctions imposed on Moscow over its role in the Ukraine crisis. But the sanctions appear likely to remain in place for now, especially those imposed over Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula seized by Russia in March 2014, despite the legal and political challenges of maintaining them. Countries skeptical about extending sanctions include Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia and Hungary. They are keen to return to doing business with Russia, the EU’s main gas supplier, not least to help offset Europe’s sluggish economic growth.