Europe's energy security does
not depend on investments alone and should include countries neighboring the
European Union, such as states in North Africa, Poland's Economics Minister
Waldemar Pawlak said in an interview with Austrian business newspaper Der
Wirtschaftsblatt Monday.
Securing Europe's energy is "sometimes
about such simple solutions as changing European law to require pipeline
operators to work in reverse [to transport natural gas or oil in both
directions]," said Pawlak.
The importance of natural gas will also increase and with it the significance
of transport routes, he said. In projects to create transport routes, it is
better that one country take the lead. For example the Nabucco Pipeline, a
joint project to bring gas from the Caspian region to Europe via Turkey,
has many partners he said, but no one to set the tempo, as for example the
North Stream and South Stream projects do.
"As the saying goes: Too many cooks spoil the broth," said Pawlak.