Foreign ministers haggle over pipeline funding
EU foreign ministers on Monday failed to reach an agreement over energy and broadband projects worth €5 billion, leaving the decision for the top level summit later this week.
The proposals were put forward by the European Commission as part of the economic recovery package, as well as a response to the recent gas crisis caused when Gazprom cut off supplies to Ukraine in the early weeks of January.
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"We did not reach a decision yet. Some member states expressed the need to look at the package again. The presidency has said it will do a final effort and propose a new compromise, and I urged my colleagues to act in the spirit of responsibility and solidarity," Czech deputy-premier for EU affairs Alexander Vondra told a press conference.
"We still have time to reach an agreement at the EU council, so that the [European Parliament] can give its say until the legislative mandate. But if we fail to find an agreement this week, then the credibility of everybody will be put to question. We can't afford this, it's a collective effort," he added.
Mr Vondra explained that there was a "strong group of countries" who wanted the so-called Nabucco pipeline, aimed at bringing Caspian gas directly to Europe via Turkey, to be on the list to receive money.
Initially earmarked with €250 million, Nabucco was downgraded to €200 and in the latest draft its name was replaced with the broader term "Southern corridor", referring also to a Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline.
Earlier on Monday, Romanian foreign minister Cristian Diaconescu said his country would not accept this replacement and could not vote the projects list unless Nabucco was on it. He also said Austria, Poland and Slovakia were supporting this position.
"We cannot understand which political interest is served by the way Nabucco is being dealt with," Mr Diaconescu said at a press conference.
Turkish bazaar
With 27 member states each aiming to get as much funding as possible for their own energy projects, haggling among capitals had reached the "Turkish bazaar stage", an EU official told this website. Germany, for instance, wanted the controversial Russian-German gas pipeline Nord Stream to be included among the funded projects.
But the official argument used by Germany to oppose the projects was different, according to an EU diplomat. Berlin was arguing that in order for the projects to have a real impact against the effects of the current economic crisis, they should be funded in 2009 and 2010, not up until 2015, as the commission has proposed.
Almost half of the member states opposed the projects, but for differing reasons, the diplomat added. Some referred to regional imbalances – alluding to the fact that the countries most hit by the Russian gas cuts, like Bulgaria or Slovakia, would only get some tens of millions of euro, while others, like France and Italy, are in line for several hundred million euro.
Other countries objected to specific projects. One group opposed further cuts in Nabucco's allocation, while a third group, including Germany, had doubts concerning the economic rationale of state funding for private projects, especially when the jobs created would be later than 2009-2010.