Friday

29th Mar 2024

Greece and Hungary sign up to Russia gas pipeline

  • The Budapest meeting comes amid Russian attempts to split the EU over Ukraine (Photo: Axel Buhrmann)

Greece and Hungary have endorsed plans for a Russian gas pipeline in the latest blow to EU unity on the Ukraine crisis.

Their foreign ministers, Nikos Kotzias and Peter Szijjarto, as well as counterparts from Serbia, Macedonia, and Turkey added their names to a declaration on the “Turkish Stream” project in Budapest on Tuesday (7 April).

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The text says they “expressed … support to create a commercially viable option of route and source diversification for delivering natural gas from the Republic of Turkey through the territories of our countries to the countries of Central and South Eastern Europe”.

It calls for the EU to co-fund related infrastructure, claiming the pipeline “would … make a significant contribution to the overall energy security of Europe and must therefore be a common responsibility of the European Union”.

It also voices interest in “interconnecting the natural gas infrastructures of our countries with European Union financial assistance”.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin last year in Ankara said he'll build Turkish Stream, a pipeline under the Black Sea to Turkey, after the EU blocked construction of South Stream, a pipeline under the Black Sea to Bulgaria.

He said Turkish Stream will terminate at a new trading hub on the Greek-Turkish border.

He added that when it’s built, he'll stop supplies to the EU via Ukraine and that if the EU wants the Russian gas it should pay for new infrastructure in south-east Europe.

The European Commission blocked South Stream on grounds it violated EU anti-monopoly laws.

Its former energy commissioner, Gunther Oettinger, also criticised it on strategic grounds, saying it would be inappropriate to take part in the project in the context of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

Its new energy chief, Maros Sefcovic, is equally critical of Turkish Stream, which EU diplomats see as a political project designed to undermine Ukraine and increase EU dependence on Russia.

Hot air?

The Budapest communique underlines that it's a statement of “political intent only, and that further exchange of views and dialogue is needed”.

The Turkish minister, Bozkir, also told Hungarian media that “after the project’s feasibility studies are over, we’ll be able to give it a more qualitative estimate”.

The caveats come amid Turkish scepticism that Turkish Stream will come to be, because Russia lacks money and because its capacity exceeds the region's requirements.

“Frankly, nobody in Turkey is taking it very seriously,” a Turkish source told EUobserver after Putin unveiled Turkish Stream in Ankara last year.

“In the present climate, the Russians feel isolated. So they have the same reflex as the Iranians used to have - to announce some kind of new project with Turkey, and the whole idea is to show they still have international partners”.

EU unity

The Budapest meeting is a blow to EU unity on the Ukraine crisis despite the pipeline’s dim prospects.

Russia is courting Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, and Italy as potential veto-wielders on EU plans to extend economic sanctions before they expire in July.

The Greek PM, Alexis Tsipras, is to meet Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, following earlier Putin meetings with Cypriot, Hungarian, and Italian leaders.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told the Tass news agency on Tuesday that Russia might exempt Greece from Russian sanctions on EU food exports.

“We co-operate in agriculture, and we can fix a decline in trade in this sphere linked to the forced introduction [by Russia] of retaliatory measures”, he said.

Nikolay Fyodorov, Russia’s agriculture minister, told Tass that Cyprus and Hungary might also get exemptions.

The Greek energy minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis, said: "I have a feeling that the visit of Alexis Tsipras to Moscow and his meeting with Vladimir Putin may become an important milestone”.

“The new chapter in the development of Greek-Russian co-operation, which will also include the Russian gas pipeline on Greek territory, may bring drastic and very positive changes".

Gazprom chief warns EU on higher gas prices

Gazprom chief Alexei Miller has said the EU's planned energy union will raise the cost of Russian gas and warned that his company will stop supplying gas through Ukraine in 2019.

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us