EU staat achter alternatieve route voor Russische gas (en)
European and Central Asian leaders gathered in Budapest have given new political impetus to the bloc's Nabucco gas pipeline from the Caspian region, designed as an alternative to the Russian distribution network.
Leaders of the countries affected by the pipeline, which would flow from the Caspian region to Central Europe, on Tuesday (27 January) said they would sign an agreement by 30 June covering the legal and technical aspects of the project, Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, the host of the Nabucco summit in Budapest, told a news conference.
In addition, the European Investment Bank (EIB i) said it is prepared to finance up to 25 percent of the cost of building the Nabucco gas pipeline, so long as the June agreement between Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria goes ahead.
Mr Gyurcsany called on the EU to provide some capital as he said Nabucco should be considered an issue of national security and not just a commercial project.
He asked the EU to provide up to €300 million in non-refundable capital financing to Nabucco and further loans through the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The EBRD said it was ready to consider giving a financial contribution, but the European Commission refused.
The commission can only "facilitate getting loans", but "not go beyond that", since the planned pipeline was a commercial project, not a "public private partnership", energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs told reporters.
The stalled €10 billion Nabucco project has come back into the spotlight after the recent gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, affecting millions of people in central Europe in early January.
The pipeline would deliver gas 3,300 km from the Caspian region through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to a distribution hub in Austria, aiming to provide 5 percent of Europe's gas needs.
But securing enough gas to fill the pipeline has proven to be a daunting task, with Iran not being politically acceptable and Iraq too unstable. Potential suppliers, such as Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are reluctant to sign up until financing is in place and the pipeline has been built.
Russian threat to Nabucco
Another obstacle for Nabucco have been the Russian pipeline projects, such as the planned Nord and South Stream, which threaten the viability of Nabucco, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who chairs the EU rotating presidency, told the conference.
"These routes bypass Ukraine as well as central Europe while maintaining the EU's high dependency on Russia. This is a direct threat to the Nabucco project," Mr Topolanek said.
However, Mr Topolanek stressed that Nabucco is not about being against Russia. There's no antagonism here," he told the conference "We don't want Nabucco against somebody, we want it for us."
Azerbaijan has confirmed that it remains committed to Nabucco and called on participants to move the project forward.
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