Speech by President Juncker at the signing of the Polish-Lithuanian pipeline agreement.

Madam President,

Prime Ministers,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A few moments ago you have witnessed a breakthrough, history being made.

This is the first energy infrastructure project that will directly connect the Baltic States with the rest of the European market.

Dear Ewa and Dalia.

You have done more than link up pipe lines.

You have done more than just connect two countries.

You have ended the energy isolation of the Baltics. You have ended their long-lasting dependence on a single supplier.

You have linked the whole region to the rest of Europe.

I am proud to know that the Commission acted as an honest broker to this deal. But the success is all yours.

We invested 300 million euro, our biggest ever investment into a project of this kind. It is an investment into the Energy Union, which is one of the priorities of this Commission.

It is investment that will pay a dividend - the free flow of energy in Europe.

We have free movement of people, goods and capital. Now we need free movement of energy.

We need it for security of supply. We need it to diversify energy sources. We cannot do this on our own; we can only do this together. We need if for our citizens, consumers and industry.

I would like to thank Ewa and Dalia. You have shown courage. You have been decisive.

I would like to thank Laimdota and Taavi for helping to make this project happen. You too will be having more interconnectors and other storage projects agreed soon. We will stand to help you in this as much as possible.

But today I would like to congratulate all of you for this real breakthrough. This is good for the region; this is good for the European Union as a whole.

In my recent State of the Union speech I called for more Union, in this Union. You have just put Energy into this Union! By taking a dynamic step, that others, I am sure, will follow.

Today's signature is about European solidarity.

Today we have done much more than bring the energy isolation of the Baltic States to an end.

We have brought the region together. Today we have agreed on a European infrastructure that will unite us, instead of divide us.

Once again, my congratulations for this great success. Thank you to all of you.

SPEECH/15/5849