EU Leaders Approve Southern Gas Corridor as Priority Project

The Heads of State and Government of the 28 EU countries have approved as a priority for energy security of the community building projects of the Southern Gas Corridor and gas corridor North - South. This is stated in the final statement of the two-day EU summit, which ended in Brussels on Friday.

"The European Council agreed on the critical importance of the common interests of the gas industry in the implementation of projects such as the North - South corridor and the Southern Gas Corridor, creating a new gas transmission hub in southern Europe, as well as key infrastructure projects to improve energy security of Finland and the Baltic countries for diversification of suppliers and routes of energy resources and the functioning of the market," the document says.

This statement was made after the Russian President Vladimir Putin said the intention to complete the South Stream gas pipeline for Russian gas supplies to Europe and to trade with Europe.

However, the European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Ettinger said that South Stream is not a priority project.

South Stream is fully acceptable, but not a priority at the moment," he told reporters in Brussels.

Earlier, the EU froze the Russian draft, which the Kremlin has strongly pushed through Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.

Note that Moscow is trying to save the European gas market, paving the South Stream bypassing Ukraine. -02D-