INOGATE Programme
President Barroso hails Nabucco signature
Energy can help to establish new structural links between Europe, Turkey, the Caspian Sea States and Central Asian States, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has said, welcoming the signature in Ankara of the Nabucco Intergovernmental Agreement, which sets out the terms and conditions under which gas can be exported from the Caspian Sea and the Middle East to the European Union and Turkey.
The agreement is between Turkey and the four EU Member States (Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria) that the pipeline will cross. President Barroso said the signature of the agreement marked “a day to look ahead, and not just to the arrival of the first gas, which industry experts believe could be as early as 2014 or 2015. This agreement could - in the months and years to come - open the door to a new era in the relationship between the European Union and Turkey, and indeed beyond.”
A statement from the Swedish Presidency of the EU also welcomed the agreement. “Enhancing the security of energy supply is a matter of strategic interest for the European Union,” the statement said. “A well-functioning European energy market, characterised by diversification in terms of sources, fuels and routes of supply, plays a crucial role in this regard.” It added that the signature was a concrete step in realising the Southern Corridor concept and its vision of deeper cooperation on energy, as expressed by the Prague Summit on the Southern Corridor in May 2009.
| Concerned URL | http://www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=19067&id_type=1&newstype=1 [] |
|---|---|
| Source of information | ENPI Info Centre |
| Release date | 15/07/2009 |
| Contributor | David Conway |
This item has expired