Warsaw, 22/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - On 23 February in Warsaw representatives of fifteen European countries and gas companies will be discussing the project of a new gas pipeline to take Russian gas towards the European Union. On the eve of this meeting, Polish Minister for the Economy Janusz Steinhoff said in a press release that "we plan to hold a serious discussion on energy security, gas supplies and the growth of consumer demand in Europe". "We hope to make a step towards a common energy policy on our continent. This is all the more important as several rival projects have been created recently", said the minister.
We recall that Romano Prodi, European Commission President, had launched the idea last September of developing a long term energy partnership between the European Union and Russia, an idea that was taken up during the EU/Russia summit in October, in Paris. Russia proposed the construction of a new gas pipeline for deliveries of Russian gas to the EU, circumventing Ukraine, which had caused concern on the part of this country (through which Russian gas for South West Europe currently transits) and Poland.