A Gazprom-driven pipeline that wants to bring Russian gas to Europe through Greece and Turkey will have to comply with EU law, European Commission’s Vice President for Energy UnionMaros Sefcovic told New Europe on June 20.
A day earlier, during Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ trip to the St Petersburg Economic Forum, Russia and Greece signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create a joint enterprise for construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline across Greek territory.
Asked about Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak’s statement on June 19 that state giant Gazprom will not own the Greek part of Turkish Stream, but Moscow will assist Athens in financing the project, and if that would apply with EU law, Sefcovic said Brussels “would need to have a look at the more concrete projects” and does not know the details.
“A memorandum of understanding, it’s quite far still from something more concrete,” Sefcovic said on the sidelines of the GLOBSEC 2015 forum in Bratislava.
“We learned about it [the Greek-Russia deal] really from the press and for us, as with any other project which is announced, of course, the EU law-Third Energy Package will be absolutely crucial to make sure that all rules are respected and applied in these projects,” Sefcovicsaid, asked if the EU will treat Turkish Stream the same way as Russia’s scrapped South Stream.
Tsipras and Russian President Vladimir Putinhave discussed plans for a pipeline that would run from the Greek-Turkish border, through Greece, and then northward into FYROM, Serbia and into Hungary. In Gazprom’s transit deal with Ukraine expires.
But Sefcovic slammedthe Russian Energy Minister’s earlier statements since South Stream was cancelled in December 2014 that after 2019 Russia will deliver its gas to the Turkish-Greek border and it will be up to the EU to build the necessary infrastructure. “We do not have the contracts which stipulate that the entry points or the price of deliveries is the Turkish border and therefore we I think we have to respect the agreements that are in place,” Sefcovic told New Europe.
The EU Vice President stressed that Russian gas must keep flowing to Europe through Ukraine even after 2019. “We have to do our outmost to keep the transits through Ukraine operational,” he said, adding that stopping the gas transit will have “very negative consequences for the whole region and the whole energy security of Europe so therefore I think that it should be in the real interest of Europe that this transit continues”.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/eu-scrutiny-for-russian-pipeline-through-greece/