Nabucco Pipeline Back on EU Priority List

The Nabucco pipeline is once again on the EU list of priority projects. Photo by Phile photo

The Nabucco gas pipeline project to pump natural gas from Central Asia to Europe transiting Bulgaria has been reportedly put back on the European Union list of priority projects.

This was announced by Polish EU Affairs minister Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, as cited by EurActiv.

"It's all agreed," Dowgielewicz told journalists before the end of the summit. As his prime minister, Donald Tusk, had said on Wednesday, Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries pushed for the Nabucco gas pipeline project during the two-day EU summit.

According to the article Germany has finally agreed to include the Nabucco gas pipeline in the list of projects, earmarking as much as EUR 200 M euro for a risk-sharing facility.

Merkel apparently gave in to pressure, requesting in exchange that sums be spent quickly to help Europe's economic recovery in the short term. Indeed, the adopted document envisages spending two billion euro on energy projects in 2009, and another 1.975 B in 2010. A total of 3.975 is to be spent on energy projects. 

This may however mean that the funding for Nabucco and other projects, favoured by Eastern European countries, could be lost.

"East European countries are usually slow in absorbing EU funding," a diplomat told EurActiv.

The Nabucco pipeline is intended to link energy-rich Central Asia to Europe through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, bypassing Russia and Ukraine. Construction has been tentatively scheduled to begin in 2010.

The Nabucco project is seen as a rival to Russia's South Stream gas pipeline designed to annually pump 31 billion cubic meters of Central Asian and Russian gas to the Balkans and on to other European countries. The project involves Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Italy and Greece.

Russia's transit disputes with its former Soviet neighbors have raised concerns in Europe about too much energy dependence on Russia.

Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on January 1 after failing to reach a deal over debt and prices for 2009 in late December, and later halted gas deliveries to Europe, saying Ukraine was stealing transit gas.

 

 

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