Russia gas takes back seat in the EU policy

The EU's formally tough stance in relation of energy dependence on Russia hasn’t been yet backed by concrete measures. It became known yesterday that the draft Energy Union of the EU hadn’t found a clear content for the past six months. But three pipelines from South-East to Central Europe were included in the list of priority projects, including Eastring, promoted by Slovakia, and Tesla, supported by Austria. The European Commission approved them with rare speed, although the projects can used by Gazprom for the provision of the Balkans with gas from the Turkish Stream.

The European Commission has published a new list of priority European infrastructure projects (projects of common interest, PCI). PCI status provides an opportunity to attract grants from EU funds, facilitates obtaining permits from regulators and generally indicates a benevolent attitude towards the project in Brussels.