Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said after the meeting with his Hungarian counter-part Peter Szijjarto that Gazprom is considering new plans for transport of natural gas to Southern Europe.
Minister Lavrov stresses that the project for the construction of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is not Russian initiative, but an initiative by a number of EU companies. In Germany, Nord Stream 2 is classed as purely commercial project, with no po-litical agendas.
He also pointed out that different views of the Eu-ropean Commission (EC) on assessing the compli-ance of projects with the Third Energy Package are clearly noticeable. He said that the EC made an exception in case Trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP), while for the exactly same positions the South Stream project was not approved by the EC.
Nevertheless, Gazprom has taken into account the interests of the EU companies in the Nord Stream 2 project, which is why the company is exploring the possibilities of additional gas pipeline projects in southern Europe.
In late February, Russian gas company Gazprom, Italian company Edison and Greek Public Gas Cor-poration (DEPA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of new gas pipeline project, which would deliver natural gas from Russia under the Black Sea via third coun-tries (possibly Bulgaria) to Greece, and then from Greece to Italy. According to Russian media, the goal of this project is the establishment of south-ern route for Russian natural gas deliveries to Eu-rope, transmits Serbia-energy.eu
