(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 17. Romania's former
energy Minister Razvan Nicolescu has sent a letter to the EU
Commissioner for energy Kadri Simson, asking to take measures to
speed up the launch of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB),
reports
via Romanian media.
“On December 10, 2014, in my capacity as Romanian Minister of
Energy at the time, I launched together with my counterparts from
Greece and Bulgaria the European project of the Vertical Corridor,
which aimed to diversify the routes and especially the sources of
natural gas supply for our region, through access to the Greek LNG
terminals and to the gas produced in Azerbaijan. The launch took
place at the headquarters of the European Commission, in the
presence of the Vice-President of the European Commission for the
Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic. We were all determined and optimistic
that we would generate alternative sources for European consumers
and for those from the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, two
neighboring countries integrated into our market through membership
of the South-East European Energy Community Treaty.
The first stage in the realization of this project was the
realization of the reverse flow between Bulgaria and Greece, which
should have been realized in the first three years after the
signing in December 2014. The changes of government in the two EU
countries, the lack of will of the Bulgartransgaz management to
respect the agreements assumed as well as the inactivity of the
specialized services of the European Commission in fulfilling their
duties of monitoring the implementation of European objectives and
related legislation, including the one regarding the prevention of
abuses of a dominant position, made the project still
non-functional today . Fortunately, the most technically
complicated part (BRUA) of the Vertical Corridor was completed by
Romania in the assumed time and within the allocated budget.
This inefficiency in pursuing the achievement of the EU's
general objectives, combined with the rapid development of other
infrastructure projects (the extension of Turkstream through
Bulgaria to Hungary) have aggravated the dependence of European
consumers in our region on a single source of supply (Gazprom)
instead of reducing it, as we proposed in 2014.
These projects and actions were carried out, including, with the
participation of the European companies Bulgartransgaz (Bulgaria)
and FGDZ (Hungary). As someone who has dedicated an important part
of his career to serving the interests of the European Union,
including as President of ACER, it is difficult for me to accept
this lack of action on the part of the European Commission
services. The objectives and rules must be respected in the EU by
everyone.
As you probably know, the bottlenecks in the European natural
gas infrastructure are as big a problem as the supply shortage.
Considering the above, I ask you to start a quick procedure to
verify the compliance of Bulgartransgaz's actions with European
legislation. A new winter is approaching. Eight years have passed
and there is no more time for stories,” reads the letter.
The IGB project is of key importance for increasing security of
supply and for ensuring diversification of natural gas sources for
Bulgaria and the region of Southeast Europe. At the regional level,
IGB will provide access to the gas transmission network for
Bulgarian municipalities and regions that didn't have an option for
connectivity. The interconnector with Greece is an entirely new
route for the transmission of natural gas to Europe and will give
Bulgaria and the region access to supplies from new sources. The
project will connect the country with the Southern Gas Corridor and
has excellent synergy with other major energy projects such as TAP,
TANAP, EastMed and the LNG terminal at Alexandroupolis.
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