The European Commission has backed Sofia's introduction of transit fees for Russian natural gas received by Serbia and Hungary through the TurkStream pipeline, which crosses Bulgarian territory. 

"We welcome these recently introduced measures and are discussing them with the Bulgarian authorities. The sanctions policy towards Russia has been outlined, reviewed and adopted at EU level and the Union must remain united in its support for Ukraine," said EC spokesman Olof Gill. 

The state decision to introduce a 20 leva per megawatt-hour charge on imports and transit of Russian gas was published in the State Gazette last Friday. At the time, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said that Bulgaria had the right to impose the fee and that it would create competition.