Brussels, 12/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - In a press release published this weekend, the Algerian Home Affairs Ministry announced that Minister Ramtane Lamamra, who will be taking part in the eighth session of the EU-Algeria Association Council this Tuesday 13 May, will sign a memorandum of understanding on the sidelines of the meeting regarding his country's participation in the EU research and development programmes. “This involvement in the Community programs will allow our country to benefit from the experience and transfer of knowledge of the European centres of excellence in various fields”, states the ministry's press release, quoted in the Algerian media (our translation throughout).
Regarding the session of the Association Council, the same source said that “the Algerian party will take this opportunity to reiterate Algeria's commitment to the 'reinforcement' of cooperation links with EU”, going on to note that the session “also comes in a bilateral context which has seen visits to Algeria of senior European officials, including José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission” in July 2013, when an agreement on energy was signed. The Foreign Ministry is reported in the media as stating that the “constructive” nature of the consultations “is likely to lead to the adoption of an action plan on the renewed European neighbourhood policy”.
In their commentary, the media have paid particular attention to one aspect: supplies of Algerian gas as a replacement for Russian gas. It appears that this issue is being looked into very seriously. The words of the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, has caught the Algerians' attention. He is reported to have “suggested creating a gas union between the countries of the EU,” and the Spanish authorities are believed to have proposed replacing Russian gas with Algerian. “Europe needs to break Russia's monopoly by creating a common European body for the procurement of gas”, said Donald Tusk, referring to the example of the agency Euratom, which is tasked with buying uranium for the EU.
According to the experts quoted by the newspaper TSA, one of the main problems is the “absence of sufficient capacity for the transit of Algerian gas” to the EU via Spain, with which the projects are currently being designed. “And although the infrastructure linking North Africa to the Iberian peninsular is still in good order, transiting it to France is limited, as there is only one pipe, and that is is a low-capacity pipe”. Implementing transport capacity will be expensive, which “Spain cannot currently afford”, and “the countries of the EU would only be able to put this project into practice if they worked together . Spain hopes to gather some responses at the next EU summit, to be held in Brussels on 26 and 27 June. The meeting will also discuss the long-term EU energy strategy, which the European energy Commissioner, Günther Oettinger, has suggested drawing up”, the Algerian press notes. However, it adds, “Algeria is facing a drop in exports of hydrocarbons and its internal consumption of gas is rising by 12% year on year. Its capacity to export more gas to Europe is therefore reduced”. (FB)