Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed hope Thursday the European Union will earmark funds for use in the Nabucco gas pipeline, a key project for bringing Caspian energy to Europe.
"I hope that the name (Nabucco) will be inscribed" on a list of key projects that E.U. leaders are set to endorse at their two-day summit in Brussels starting Thursday, he said after meeting his Hungarian counterpart Ferenc Gyurcsany.
E.U. leaders are to allocate EUR5 billion for projects on energy and broadband internet, part of wider plans to help re-launch economic growth as the global crisis bites.
A number of the E.U.'s 27 member states, including Germany, refuse to endorse projects which aren't far enough advanced to have a real and immediate impact on the economy.
Berlin said Nabucco - set to bring natural gas from the Caspian and reduce the E.U.'s dependency on Russia, as well as on Ukraine as a transit country - doesn't fulfil this requirement.
Several eastern European nations insist the project must figure on the list.