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EU clashes with US over Trump's anti-Russian gas pipeline in the Balkans

2026-04-23 19:36:47Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

EU clashes with US over Trump's anti-Russian gas pipeline in the Balkans

The European Union risks a showdown with Donald Trump after he sought to block the award of a lucrative Balkan gas pipeline contract to a company run by his personal lawyer, documents seen by the Guardian show.

Brussels has clashed with Trump over trade, Ukraine and military spending, but the intervention in the Southern Connection pipeline project appears to mark the first time it has challenged a trade venture from those close to the president.

The pipeline will run through Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under what Bosnian sources say have been months of pressure from US officials, its leaders have moved quickly to award the contract to a previously little-known company based in Wyoming.

AAFS Infrastructure and Energy was founded in November last year and has not disclosed its owners.

It is led by two key members of Trump's campaign to overturn his 2020 election loss: Jesse Binnall, a lawyer who defended him against charges of inciting riots at the Capitol after his defeat, and Joe Flynn, the brother of the president's former national security adviser.

Despite the lack of any visible track record, AAFS is planning to invest $1.5 billion in the pipeline and other Bosnian infrastructure projects, its local representative said.

In March, lawmakers passed legislation that Transparency International said would set a “dangerous precedent” by stipulating that the contract must go to AAFS without a tender.

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

In a letter sent on April 13, obtained by Bosnian investigative media outlet istraga.ba and seen by the Guardian, the EU ambassador to Bosnia, Luigi Soreca, wrote that, under an energy agreement between Bosnia and Brussels, it was “essential that the draft laws are fully coordinated” with the EU.

Soreca said Brussels should have a role in the pipeline legislation.

"In this way, Bosnia and Herzegovina can continue to progress on its European path and avoid losing opportunities for further integration, as well as financial opportunities," he said.

Binnall has said the pipeline is a "priority for the Trump administration."

Asked about the EU's intervention, he said: "AAFS will never forget what really matters in this project: providing energy security and fostering economic development for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina."

"We are committed to working closely with all relevant authorities to develop the necessary infrastructure to make this vision a reality."

By connecting Bosnia to a liquefied natural gas terminal near the Croatian coast, the pipeline would allow American gas to reach a country that depends on Russia for all of its supplies.

After Vladimir Putin launched Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Brussels set a deadline for EU members - plus aspiring members, like Bosnia - to stop buying Russian gas by 2028.

However, Brussels faces the prospect of a significant new piece of Europe's energy chessboard falling under the control not only of an American company, but also of a company personally linked to a hostile president.

The AAFS website features a large eagle, evoking the power of the United States. It does not name any staff, but says they have “decades of combined experience in energy, infrastructure, finance, and international project development.” AAFS does not appear to have undertaken any infrastructure projects on the scale of the one planned in the Balkans.

Binnall and Flynn are not the only ones from Trump's circle who have shown interest in Bosnia.

Joe Flynn's brother, Michael - a former US intelligence chief whose conviction for lying to the FBI about his dealings with Russia was overturned by a pardon from Trump in 2020 - has lobbied for the head of Bosnia's Serb nationalist faction.

The lobbying campaign succeeded in October in lifting US sanctions on Milorad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb leader who had been undermining the 1995 peace deal that ended a three-year war in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

In April, Donald Trump Jr., who runs the family business empire, visited Sarajevo. Although neither he nor Michael Flynn appear to be directly involved in the pipeline project, Dodik has supported it.


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