Baku, Azerbaijan, May 8
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
Security of energy supply and gas co-operation in Central East/South East Europe are of paramount priority for the European Commission, the source in Commission told Trend on May 8.
The source said that the Commission initiated a dialogue with the EU Member States from Central East and South East Europe.
"This is done in order to establish a regional priority infrastructure roadmap and advance its implementation in order to develop missing infrastructure and improve security of gas supplies. This is a priority for the Commission", the source said.
The source further said the Commission and respective member states agreed that the objective for each member state should be to have access to at least three different sources.
After Russia refused from implementing "South Stream" gas pipeline project, Central and South-Eastern Europe faced with the need to find alternative sources and routes of gas supplies.
The need for supply diversification is explained by the fact that the countries of this region of Europe depend on Russian gas to a greater or lesser extent.
During the meeting of representatives of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Romania and Slovenia held in December, last year the sides discussed the gas infrastructure priorities for Central and South-Eastern Europe.
According to the joint statement of the meeting participants, the integration of gas markets and the diversification of gas supplies will namely require putting in place the necessary infrastructure - which can be done by implementing key regional projects.
The LNG terminals with corresponding pipeline systems, connections to the Southern Gas Corridor, or the development of East Mediterranean and Black Sea offshore gas reserve were named among such projects.p /> Aside from that, after the meeting, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania inked an agreement on the development of regional gas infrastructure, which, in particular, stipulates the creation of the so-called Vertical Gas Corridor connecting the three countries.
Creation of such a corridor will pave the way for gas supplies from the Caspian region, in particular from Azerbaijan, to several countries in Central and South-Eastern Europe and thus becomes a step forward in providing the region's countries with alternative gas volumes.
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