Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
The European Commission keeps pushing for the diversification of energy sources, routes and suppliers, as well as encourages the emerging LNG market, the EU Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič said in his speech at the Internationale Energy Agency in Paris.
The speech of Šefčovič was published on the European Commission's official website.
"We will continue discussions with third countries, in particular those in our immediate neighbourhood, especially in Energy Community countries, not only on security aspects in a narrow sense but also on issues such as renewables and energy efficiency," Šefčovič said.
Today the Southern Gas Corridor is among the European Commission's energy projects, which aims at the diversification of the EU gas supply sources and routes. Azerbaijani gas in considered as the main source for that project.
The Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian region to the European markets, has been included in the European Commission's PCI (projects of common interest) list. In particular, Expansion of the South-Caucasus Pipeline, Trans Anatolia Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Interconnection Greece - Bulgaria (IGB), as well as the Trans Caspian pipeline are among the included in the PCI list projects.
Speaking about the Energy Union strategy Šefčovič said that by the end of this year the Commission intends to put forward some 90 percent of its proposals.
A single European energy market, according to Šefčovič, will allow the EU to increase its security of supply by allowing energy to flow freely across its borders therefore offsetting oversupply on one side of a border with over demand on another.
He also stressed that one of the main points of focus for this year is decoupling the geo-political tensions, especially on Europe's eastern borders, from Europe's energy security.
A central element of the EU's Energy Union strategy is bridging missing links in the energy infrastructure.
Building missing cross-border links between the Baltic Sea region and the rest of the EU energy market is a priority for the commission, Šefčovič said.