Brussels, 09/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - Increasing EU-Turkish cooperation in the energy sector was at the heart of discussions during the visit to Istanbul on Thursday 9 February of Commissioners Stefan Füle (Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy) and Günther Oettinger (Energy) in meetings with their Turkish opposite numbers, Foreign Affairs Minister and Chief Negotiator on Accession Egemen Bagis and Energy Minister Taner Yildiz.
“Energy is a topic of key interest in the EU-Turkey relations and also a topic for the development of a positive agenda between Turkey and the EU proposed by the European Commission as a complementary element to the accession negotiations with Turkey”, said the Commission in a press release published on Thursday. “For that, infrastructure needs to be developed that interconnects European and Turkish markets”, the press release went on.
Turkey, which has ever greater energy needs to fuel its economic growth, also wants to become a hub for energy supply to Europe. At the centre of the project to construct a pan-European gas pipeline network avoiding Ukraine, the Southern gas corridor, a key component of which is the Nabucco project, Turkey concluded a package of gas contracts with Azerbaijan at the end of 2011. These contracts include matters such as prices and quantities of gas pumped from the Azeri Shah Deniz-2 field to Turkey from 2017 and an agreement on the transit of Azeri gas through Turkey to the EU. To this end, Turkey and Azerbaijan have reached agreement on the construction of the Trans-Anatolia gas pipeline. At the end of 2011, Turkey also authorised Gazprom to run its South Stream gas pipeline through its territorial waters in the Black Sea. (EH/transl.rt)