Ministers and representatives of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Romania and Slovenia, and European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic met in Brussels Tuesday to discuss gas infrastructure priorities for Central- and South-Eastern Europe.
The EU countries directly concerned and the Vice-President discussed the recent announcement by Russia and Gazprom to stop the South Stream project, they said in a joint statement.
They took note of the currently unofficial nature of this announcement and invited the Vice-President to clarify the situation with the Russian side.
All Member States agreed that the EU must remain strongly committed to integrating Central and South-Eastern European gas markets and diversifying gas suppliers, sources and routes. This is also a key objective of the Energy Union, one of the priority projects of the new European Commission, it stressed.
The integration of gas markets and the diversification of gas supplies will require putting in place the necessary infrastructure and implementing harmonised rules for the benefit of customers in that region.
This can be achieved by implementing key regional projects such as LNG terminals with corresponding pipeline systems, connections to the Southern Gas Corridor, or the development of East Mediterranean and Black Sea offshore gas reserves, it said.
In this context they welcomed another joint statement signed today by Greece, Bulgaria and Romania on the natural gas "Vertical Corridor" connecting their countries.
The three countries said they support the development of a new Vertical Gas Corridor connecting Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, with a view to ensuring uninterrupted supplies, while promoting the EU's Priority Corridor "North South" and "Southern Corridor." The meetings took place at the sideline of the meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels Tuesday.