| NABUCCO – AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE OF ENERGY FOR EUROPE 28/01/2009 |
| (2009-01-28) |
| Last updated: 2009-01-29 15:25 EET |
Gathering in Budapest, the interested parties, including Romania, adopted a joint declaration on the provision of the political, legal, economic and financial framework needed to finalize the pipe line. An intergovernmental agreement could be achieved by the end of the year. The participants agreed that Nabucco is a political and commercial project which, once implemented, can solve some of the Union’s energy problems and provide the proof of European solidarity. Funding is one obstacle preventing the realization of the project.
The European Bank for Investment said it was ready to cover a quarter of the costs. The project is part of a vicious circle because supply states in central Asia are not willing to sign delivery contracts with European partners until the pipe line is built. Potential partners are not willing to finance the building of the pipe line unless they can sign firm agreements concerning gas deliveries.
After the meeting in Budapest, the Romanian economy minister Adriean Videanu said the gas resources in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan are essential for Europe’s energy security and the realisation of the Nabucco project. Romania remains faithful to this project and to others aimed at interconnecting the European states. The foreign minister Cristian Diaconescu recently said that Bucharest will try at the same time to open political channels of communication with Moscow with a view to conclude economic agreements that would allow the delivery of Russian gas without intermediaries.
This is in fact Romania’s response to a proposal made to Romania by the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin at the beginning of the year, in the middle of the gas crisis. According to Diaconescu, any solution that protects Romania’s citizens from such crisis resulting in unpredictable cuts in the energy supply is welcome. President Traian Basescu also said that as soon as the Nabucco issue is solved, Romania will try to join the South Stream, the Russian gas pipe line.
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2025-04-03
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