New European Transmission System

Romania's Transgaz national natural gas transmission corporation signed on January 28 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Partnership for the Development of Natural Gas Networks in Eastern Europe (EE-NGP), according to a press statement released on Friday to the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB). The memorandum was signed by all the entities that are members of the project.

Gas companies from Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Hungary agreed to link their gas networks to increase security of supplies in southeastern Europe, the Bulgarian energy ministry said.

Grid operators Bulgartransgaz, DESFA, FGSZ and Transgaz as well as Greek-Bulgarian ICGB signed a memorandum of understanding for the project in Bucharest on Wednesday.

Bulgaria will receive an EU grant of EUR 850,000  for the rehabilitation, modernization and expansion of its gas transmission system under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), an EU funding programme for infrastructure.

Moldova has joined the high-level group of CESEC, the gas connectivity initiative of the European Commission for central-eastern and southeastern Europe.

Fifteen EU and Energy Community countries in Central Eastern Europe and Southeastern Europe agreed on Friday to join forces to speed up the creation of missing gas infrastructure links, the European Commission said.

The European Commission is to present Wednesday a blueprint for the future Energy Union.

The establishment of the energy union is a priority task for the Juncker commission aimed at reducing the dependence of the EU Member States on Russian natural gas and at boosting the energy efficiency of the housing stock, according to reports of the Bulgarian National Television.

Building a gas distribution centre in Bulgaria to serve South Eastern Europe and the EU would cost EUR 2.2 B, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said on Monday.

Addressing the first meeting of the high-level group on the construction of gas links in Central and South Eastern Europe, Borisov said that Bulgaria is offering a number of advantages that make it suitable for becoming a gas hub.