Brussels, 10/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - After a meeting with the Romanian Minister for the Economy, Adriean Videanu, in Budapest on Tuesday 9 June on the sidelines of the annual European forum for energy efficiency and renewables, the European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs confirmed that the inter-governmental agreement on the planned Nabucco gas pipeline was likely to be signed at the end of this month or early next month, thus sweeping aside the doubts expressed after the Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz announced that Ankara was not going to drop its demands concerning the transit of Nabucco gas through its territory (EUROPE 9970). Meeting at the South Corridor Summit in Prague at the beginning of May, the Member States of the EU which are stakeholders in the project (Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania) and Turkey pledged to seal an inter-governmental agreement on the terms for the transit of Nabucco gas via the Turkish territory at the end of June (EUROPE 9917). On Tuesday, Mr Piebalgs also called for the discussion aiming to set up Nabucco and the alternative project supported by Moscow, South Stream, as competitors "not to be politicised" as it will, he explained, be "an additional source of gas for Europe and of no detriment to its interests". "A small number of pipelines makes us vulnerable, as we saw in January (during the gas conflict between Russia and Ukraine: Ed), or when a gas pipeline exploded in Transnistria, but the more conduits there are, the better", he stressed. Nabucco will bring gas from the Middle East and Central Asia to the EU, avoiding Russia by going via Turkey and south-eastern Europe. South Stream will link Russia to Bulgaria under the Black Sea, and from Bulgaria will divide into a north-west branch heading for Austria and a southern one going towards Greece and Italy. (E.H./trans.fl)