The European Union will move closer this week to securing natural gas from Azerbaijan and diversifying its energy supplies to lessen dependence on imports from Russia. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, will sign tomorrow a joint declaration on the establishment of the so-called Southern Corridor, or projects that would enable the tapping of Caspian gas resources and supplement existing routes from Russia, Norway and North Africa.
“I am sure that together we will create the necessary conditions for this strategic initiative to take place,” Barroso said in a statement yesterday in Brussels. To diversify its supply sources, the 27-nation EU has agreed to help fund the 7.9-billion-euro ($10.2 billion) Nabucco pipeline, planned to send Caspian-region gas via Turkey to Austria.