EU gas summit seeks ’south corridor’ plan

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

refid:11585258 ilişkili resim dosyası

EU member states and Turkey will be urged to speed up an intergovernmental agreement over the Nabucco gas pipeline in order for it to be signed "by June 2009," according to draft conclusions of the meeting obtained by EurActiv.

The Prague meeting, organized by the Czech EU Presidency, will bring together representatives of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, alongside the EU institutions. No EU heads of state will be present, despite the meeting being billed as a "summit" by the organizers.

In Prague, the Czech Presidency will be pushing for an intergovernmental agreement "by the end of 2009" over the planned ITGI gas pipeline, which would link Greece to Italy. The project is still in planning phase, but crucially received backing from Greece, Italy and Turkey in July 2007.

The meeting will also seek to promote a pipeline aimed at bringing natural gas supplies under the Caspian from Turkmenistan to Baku, the Azeri capital, according to the draft declaration. This so-called 'Trans-Caspian Link' is seen as an important building block for Nabucco, as it could help fill the pipeline with the gas needed to make the project commercially viable.

However, it appears that EU countries have yet to agree on which projects should actually constitute the 'Southern Gas Corridor'. In November last year, the European Commission tabled its Second Strategic Energy Review, calling for the EU's gas supplies in the Caspian region to be extended when "political conditions permit." The review mentioned the Nabucco, Turkey-Greece-Italy and South Stream pipelines as possible alternatives to Russian gas in the aftermath of the January supply crisis between Moscow and Kiev.

Unclear expression
But it shied away from precisely defining the Southern Gas Corridor concept. "It is not yet clear what is meant by the expression," admitted a senior diplomat from one of the EU's largest member states.

The Czech meeting will attempt to clarify the issue, and the draft summit declaration suggests that the main idea will be to define the concept in the broadest possible terms.

"The concept for the Southern Corridor is complementary to other existing energy partnerships and projects of the EU, and is open for the participation and contribution of third parties on a case-by-case basis," the draft reads.