The European Commission Wednesday proposed spending EUR5 billion to help revive the European economy, including new funds for alternative energy, high-speed Internet and gas pipelines to diversify European supply away from Russia.
The plan from the commission, the European Union's executive arm, will provide EUR1.25 billion for five carbon capture and storage projects, about EUR500 million for offshore wind projects and EUR1.7 billion for gas and electricity transmission networks.
The commission also proposed EUR1 billion for extending high-speed Internet networks into rural areas. A further EUR500 million will help rural areas to adapt to recent changes in the E.U.'s farm subsidy program.
The E.U. member countries and the European Parliament will have to approve the plan, before it can be implemented.
The Nabucco gas pipeline project, which is supposed to bring Central Asian gas to Europe bypassing Russia, will receive EUR250 million, and the ITGI pipeline, which already brings gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey and Greece, will receive EUR100 million to be stretched to Italy.
The money for Nabucco will be channeled through the European Investment Bank, which will then be able to finance the consortium building Nabucco, the commission said.
A dispute between Ukraine and Russia that cut gas deliveries to Europe for more that two weeks at the start of the year has exposed the need for new pipelines and better interconnections within the E.U. to ease dependence on Russian supplies and increase energy security. The commission plans to finance carbon capture and storage projects, which aim at capturing CO2 and store it underground, in five E.U. countries, including the Netherlands and the U.K.
The plan focuses on projects that are ready for funding to quickly stimulate the E.U. economy, said spokesman Johannes Laitenberger during a press conference.
"You have a big number of strategically worthy projects that don't have the same immediate effect," he said, explaining why some projects were left out of the plan.