Brussels, 05/05/2008 (Agence Europe) -In Brussels on Monday 5 May, the European Commissioners Benita Ferrero-Waldner (External Relations ) and Andris Piebalgs (Energy) received a major delegation from the Mashreq countries, made up of the Egyptian Minister for Oil, Sameh Famy, the Syrian Minister for Oil, Sufian Al-Alao, CEO of the Egyptian Natural Gas Company and representatives of the Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese and Turkish governments. The objectives of the meeting were to promote the role of the Arab gas pipeline as a future supplier of the Nabucco gas pipeline and to discuss ways of reinforcing energy cooperation between the EU and Arab Mashreq. The meeting also aimed to help urge the full co-operation of Iraq in regional energy activities, particularly the Arab gas pipeline. With an annual capacity of 10 billion m³ of gas, the Arab gas pipeline links Egypt to Syria via Jordan. Scheduled to be operational in 2009, its interconnection to Turkey and Iraq will provide a new transport route into the EU will gas resources from the Mashreq region. The European Commission, which is hoping that the region will connect to the Nabucco gas pipeline project in the future, will bring this question to the centre of talks. The prospects of a reinforcement of EU/Mashreq energy cooperation, by means of the Euro-Mashreq gas cooperation centre in Damascus, is also to be central to the meeting. Enjoying technical assistance provided by the Commission, this centre has been working since 2006 on the development of a regional market for natural gas in Mashreq, with the objective of its gradual integration into the Community market. The centre also provides support to work on the completion of the Nabucco gas pipeline. This meeting follows on from the EU/Africa/Middle East energy conference held in Sharm el Sheikh by the European Commission and Egypt in November 2007 (EUROPE 9536), and the meeting of the Energy Ministers of the EU and all the Euro-Mediterranean partnership in Limassol in December 2007 (EUROPE 9568). It is worth noting that the Commission is also working bilaterally on reinforcing energy cooperation with the countries of Mashreq: a joint declaration on energy cooperation between the European Commission and Jordan, which was signed in 2007, has now been implemented; a memorandum of understanding on energy was finalised with Egypt and is being looked into with Iraq. (E.H.)