Turkije wil helderheid in Europese positie ten aanzien van Nabucco-pijpleiding (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Turkey on Wednesday (4 March) said its support for EU-backed Nabucco pipeline was unconditional, despite earlier statements linking the project's progress with its EU membership talks, and said it was divisions within the 27 EU states that are slowing the project's progress.
Turkey has clearly been backing Nabucco from the very beginning, Hilmi Guler, Turkish Minister for Energy and Natural Resources, said at a conference organised by the Brussels-based European Policy Centre think-tank.
"We are the initiator of this project, not only the partner. We initiated it because we need it, also because we consider that the European Union needed it," Mr Guler said.
"Also we haven't changed our position from the beginning… But sometimes the EU acts as a Union, sometimes as a country, sometimes as a company. We want their position to be clarified… They always change their position," he added.
Nabucco is to be some 2,000km long and its construction is supposed to start in 2011, with first gas shipments due in 2014. The gas would be shipped from the Caspian Sea to Europe via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.
However, it is not clear yet how the project, estimated to cost some €8 billion, would be financed. There are also concerns about whether there is enough gas for it.
Consequently, some EU governments, including Germany and Italy, which have long-term gas contracts with Russia's Gazprom, have been sceptical about Nabucco.
On Sunday, German chancellor Angela Merkel i said the new pipeline should not be subsidised with European money.
"There is no need for financial support for Nabucco as there is no shortage of private investors… The problem with Nabucco is where the gas will come from, not where the investment will come from," Ms Merkel said after meeting other EU leaders in Brussels.
Meanwhile, Germany is strongly backing the planned Nabucco rival Nord Stream pipeline coming from Russia, while gas companies in Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria – all part of the Nabucco consortium – have signed on another Nabucco rival, South Stream, which would bring gas to Italy also from Russia.
Turkey's energy minister urged EU countries to make up their minds if they want Nabucco realised on time.
"We are observing our partners, because sometimes they are flirting [with] other source countries. Some of them are flirting with Russia, some of them are flirting with Iran," Mr Guler said.
"First of all, everyone should consider their position and responsibility if they want to realise this project [within the proposed timetable]," he added.
Not a political project
The energy minister also stressed that Turkey's support for Nabucco was unconditional.
In January, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had indicated that Ankara may rethink its support for Nabucco if there is no progress on the energy chapter of its EU accession talks, which is still blocked at the moment, notably due to Cypriot opposition.
"If we are faced with a situation where the energy chapter is blocked, we would of course review our position [on Nabucco]," Mr Erdogan had said at the time.
But although Turkey does want to enter the European Union, "we are not using Nabucco as an instrument" to achieve that goal, said Mr Guler.
"It is a commercial project, it's not a political project," he added, rejecting accusations that Ankara is "hindering" Nabucco, and saying Turkey wants it realised as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn i who also took part in the discussion, insisted on the need for the EU to diversify its energy sources, and cited nuclear power as one suitable means to do so.
EUobserver