European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso believes that the implementation of Nabucco project will provide energy security to Turkey, to South East Europe, and to Central Europe.
The European Commission’s president said this at a ceremony of signing the “Nabucco Intergovernmental Agreement” between Turkey and four Member States of the European Union (Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria), in the presence of many of the countries, which could be potential gas suppliers, in Ankara on Monday.
“Nabucco will provide energy security to Turkey, to South East Europe, and to Central Europe. Nabucco is thus a truly European project,” he said.
Barroso said that this is an achievement of which they can all be proud, because Turkey and the European Union have tackled, together, a common challenge, i.e. the security and diversification of their energy supplies.
“It is also a day to look ahead, and not just to the arrival of the first gas, which industry experts believe could be as early as 2014 or 2015. This agreement could – in the months and years to come – open the door to a new era in the relationship between the European Union and Turkey, and indeed beyond. Energy can help to establish new structural links between Europe, Turkey, the Caspian Sea States and Central Asian States. Gas pipes may be made of steel, but Nabucco can cement the links between our people,” Barroso stressed.
In his words, the reason these negotiations have succeeded is that they have been conscious of the need for all parties to be content with the outcome. “I think we have been able to structure an agreement that delivers benefits to all,” Barroso said.
“Nabucco has been agreed, if I may say, in the European way: through long and detailed discussion and an accommodation of everyone’s concerns. That is the way Europe works, resolving differences, finding solutions to everyone’s concerns. Turkey and the European Union have worked together in a positive spirit. This constructive and unifying approach has created the opportunity for all of us to benefit,” he said.
