EU risks falling out with US over Trump-linked Balkan pipeline plan - media

The European Union risks a falling out with the United States after the EU tried to block a lucrative contract for the construction of a Balkan pipeline with a company headed by US President Donald Trump's lawyer. This is reported by The Guardian, according to UNN. 

The EU risks a confrontation with Donald Trump after it tried to block a lucrative contract for the construction of a Balkan pipeline with a company headed by his personal lawyer 

It is noted that Brussels has clashed with Trump over trade, Ukraine, and military spending, but the intervention in the "Southern Connection" gas pipeline project appears to be the first time Brussels has challenged a commercial enterprise by individuals close to the president.

The pipeline will pass through Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to Bosnian sources, under pressure from American officials that had been ongoing for several months, the country's leadership quickly moved to sign a contract with a previously little-known company based in Wyoming. AAFS Infrastructure and Energy was registered last November and has not disclosed its owners. It is headed by two leading members of Trump's campaign to overturn his 2020 election defeat: Jesse Binnall, a lawyer who defended him against charges of inciting the Capitol riot after his defeat, and Joe Flynn, brother of the former national security adviser to the president 

Despite a lack of any apparent track record, AAFS plans to invest $1.5 billion in the pipeline and other Bosnian infrastructure projects. 

In March, lawmakers approved a bill that Transparency International said would set a "dangerous precedent" by stipulating that the contract should be awarded to AAFS without a tender.

Days later, Brussels' representative in Sarajevo issued a personal warning to Bosnian leaders that they were jeopardizing the country's hopes of joining the EU.

By connecting Bosnia to a liquefied natural gas terminal off the coast of Croatia, the pipeline will allow American gas to reach a country entirely dependent on supplies from Russia. After Vladimir Putin launched Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Brussels set a deadline for EU members, as well as aspiring members like Bosnia, to stop buying Russian gas by 2028. Nevertheless, Brussels faces the prospect of a new crucial player on the European energy chessboard falling under the control of not just an American company, but a company personally linked to an antagonistic president 

Recall 

The first batches of oil via the "Druzhba" pipeline have been received in Hungary and Slovakia - at the Feneslitke and Budkovce pumping stations.