European Union plans new gas pipelines in the Balkans

The European Commission, which, after the abolition of South Stream, was forced to urgently look for new ways of gas supply in South-Eastern Europe, has presented its first proposals. Brussels proposes to provide Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia with Azerbaijani gas by constructing two interconnectors, and Hungary and Slovenia – with liquefied gas from the future LNG terminal in Croatia. This creates a real alternative to Russian gas, but can’t completely replace it. On the contrary, Gazprom will be able to take advantage of new pipelines in the implementation of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project.

The European Commission (EC) has selected four priority gas pipeline projects in the Balkans, which should increase the gas flows between the countries of the region and reduce their dependence on the current single supplier Gazprom. Last Friday, the second meeting of the group to improve the gas connectivity in Central and South-Eastern Europe (CESEC) - these are former countries - participants of the South Stream project, which at the invitation of the European Commission were joined by representatives of the Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Macedonia. In the past eight months, the sides discussed the question of how to ensure security of the supply in South-Eastern Europe after the abolition of South Stream, and now they introduced the first practical results.