In Budapest on Friday 9 September, the pan-European initiative for gas interconnection in Central and South Eastern Europe (CESEC) made tangible progress, with the signature, at a ministerial meeting, of several agreements and commitments between governments and gas transport network managers, on the subject of infrastructure and regional cooperation.
The governments and transport network operators of Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania signed joint declarations regarding cooperation for gas projects the entire length of the 'vertical gas corridor'.
Furthermore, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the transport network operators of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Ukraine for reverse flows on the trans-Balkan's gas pipeline.
The ministers also welcomed the forthcoming completion of the new interconnection between Bulgaria and Romania, as well as projects to reinforce the Bulgarian network to prepare it for the setting in place of new interconnections with neighbouring countries.
For the future, the ministers have committed to make sure that four other priority projects are rapidly brought to a conclusion: the LNG terminal in Croatia and the connection infrastructure with Hungary, the Greece-Bulgaria interconnection and the Bulgaria-Serbia interconnection.
Additionally, the Commission, represented by its vice-president with responsibility for the Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic, and its commissioner for energy and the climate, Miguel Arias Canete, signed a subsidy agreement for €179 million allocated to the gas corridor linking Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria through the Connecting Europe Facility.
The ministers also adopted an action plan on regulatory issues to facilitate the operation of existing and scheduled infrastructure in the region and to approve the functioning of the market.
Lastly, the ministers agreed to extend cooperation in the framework of the CESEC initiative to electricity, renewables and energy efficiency, in order to encourage the creation of a regional market in these fields.
"Today's meeting is a milestone in regional cooperation and in advancing our plans for Energy Union. In working together, we can achieve heightened energy security and diversification in a region which has already experienced severe vulnerability to its gas supplies", said Sefcovic.
Canete, for his part, welcomed the "tangible results in gas cooperation in South Eastern Europe, where Bulgaria – and soon Ukraine as well – now has access to LNG".
The CESEC initiative brings together nine member states of the EU from central and south-eastern Europe (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia) and those of the countries of the Energy Community (Albania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia and Ukraine).
Set in place by the Commission in 2015 to offset the effects of the abandonment of the Russian gas pipeline project South Stream, the CESEC initiative aims to build priority energy infrastructure and create the infrastructure currently lacking in south-east Europe, in order to secure gas supply in the region and to make sure that each of these countries has access to at least three different sources of gas supply. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)