Eleven Central and East European (CEE) countries agreed on Wednesday
(February 24th) to set up a north-south-east gas system that would help both
diversify supply sources and routes, as well as beef up energy security in the
region.
The new arrangement was proposed by Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon
Bajnai during an energy security summit in Budapest. The meeting ended with the
signing of a joint declaration by the participating states, including Austria,
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary,
Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The document called for the establishment of the "North-South-East gas
supply triangle" as suggested by summit host Bajnai. The Nabucco natural gas
pipeline would form the eastern corner of the triangle, while the liquefied
natural gas (LNG) terminal on the Croatian island of Krk and another in Poland
would represent its southern and northern corners, respectively.
A planned central European gas line, known as the North-South Energy
Corridor, would link the three corners, according to Reuters.
"We signed a joint declaration that states that energy security is a
highly important task for the signatory states," Bajnai said at a news
conference, describing the document as a milestone in regional energy
co-operation.
"It is a very broad and strong co-operation to ensure that fewer people
have to endure sleepless nights or freezing temperatures because of any energy
crisis in the region," he also noted, in an apparent reference to the gas crisis
early last year triggered by a price dispute between Russia's Gazprom and
Ukraine.
Attending the meeting were the prime ministers of the Czech Republic,
Poland and Slovakia -- the other three countries in the Visegrad Four group,
currently chaired by Hungary -- and by their Bulgarian, Croatian, Romanian and
Serbian counterparts.
Austria, BiH and Slovenia were represented by government officials at
the forum, which was attended also by International Energy Agency Executive
Director Nobuo Tanaka and US Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Richard
Morningstar.
The signatories "express their support to strengthen co-operation in
further integrating their gas networks and diversifying routes and sources of
supplies", Reuters quoted the Budapest summit declaration as saying.
Participants agreed to support an LNG terminal in Romania's Constanca
and similar projects in the wider Black Sea region.
Bajnai said he believes the new projects could be completed in 2014 or
2015.
The declaration also called for speedier implementation of the Nabucco
project, a rival to the Russian-backed South Stream project, whose construction
is scheduled to begin by the end of 2011 and is expected to be completed in
2014.
According to plans, the pipeline will carry up to 31 billion cubic
meters of Iraqi, Turkmen and Azeri natural gas along a 3,300km-long route. It
runs from eastern Turkey to a distribution hub in Austria via Bulgaria, Romania
and Hungary, bypassing Russia.
Tanaka told Hungarian news agency MTI that Nabucco would be a better
solution for improving energy security in Europe than South Stream.
At Serbia's request, an appendix was included in the declaration, saying
that some of the participating states, including Hungary, will join the South
Stream project as well.