Bulgaria PM: EU Rules Out Repeat of Gas Crisis

Bulgaria, the poorest state in the EU, was one of the hardest-hit countries by the termination of Russian gas supplies over the Russia-Ukraine prices dispute in January 2009. File photo by BGNES

The European Union has vowed not to allow a repeat of the situation two years ago when gas supplies were suspended to European countries, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov told reporters Friday in Brussels.

Projects concerning gas transit networks, oil pipelines, nuclear energy and renewable energy sources were on the agenda of a working dinner with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, which he attended Thursday night, Borisov said.

Borisov is attending the session of the European Council in Brussels.

"All European Union member states will be obliged to have at least two sources of gas and electricity by 2014," he said, citing as an example the networks with Romania and Greece that Bulgaria is building.

He pointed out that a groundbreaking ceremony of a similar project will be held in the next few months to link Bulgaria and Turkey, which has been added to the energy packet at the insistence of Great Britain.

"The three countries are the drivers of the Nabucco project," Borisov told journalists.

Nabucco would deliver 31 billion cubic meters annually from eastern Turkey to Austria. Bulgaria, in which the pipeline from Caspian gas fields is to enter the EU, holds a 16.5 % stake in the EUR 8 B project.

The Nabucco pipeline is planned across Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Bulgaria, its construction executed by a consortium of firms from EU nations - Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria - as well as Turkey. The project is the EU's attempt to diversify sources and reduce dependency on Russia and is largely seen as a rival to South Stream.

Bulgaria, the poorest state in the EU, was one of the hardest-hit countries by the termination of Russian gas supplies over the Russia-Ukraine prices dispute in January 2009.

At a time of time of increasingly acrimonious relations between Russia and the West, the crisis underscored how Russia can use its energy might to hold Europe hostage. Moscow characterized the crisis as a bilateral economic dispute with Ukraine, but the human impact was felt far beyond Moscow and Kiev.

In Bulgaria, a member of the EU and NATO that has spent more than a decade trying to shrug off its Communist past the vulnerability to Russia, once a steadfast ally, was more than acutely felt.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!