Brussels, 25/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of a visit to Vilnius in early June, the president of the European Commission stresses the importance of strengthening the gas supply connection between Lithuania and Poland. In a letter addressed to Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaité, José Manuel Barroso underlines, as reported in Baltic News Service, the need to build a new gas pipeline connecting the Baltic state to Poland, allowing markets to be developed and sources and gas supply itineraries to be diversified for countries that are highly dependent on Russian gas. “The letter clearly indicates that the project is a priority for the EU and that it will be financed under the trans-European energy network programme (TEN-E)”, a spokesperson for Grybauskaité states, cited by BNS. This dossier is to be discussed during Barroso's visit to Vilnius on 2 June. In his letter, the Commission president welcomes the political support given to the project by the Lithuanian president and by his Polish counterpart, Lech Kaczynski. Although in his opinion this is a “very important” project for the Baltic region, Barroso nonetheless sounds a note of caution regarding the possibility of appointing an EU coordinator for realisation of the project. In his view, it is necessary to appoint a coordinator in the event of projects faced with serous difficulties. Barroso therefore calls for the joint project between Lithuania and Poland to be coordinated and supervised by a high level group working within the framework of the plan for interconnection of the Baltic energy markets, closely followed up by Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger. (E.H./transl.jl)