Adriatic Sea

State sell-off fund TAIPED on Thursday opened the way for the consortium of Italy's Snam, Spain's Enagas and Belgium's Fluxys to acquire 66 percent of Greece's gas grid operator DESFA, thereby strengthening the southern Europe energy axis built around the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).

Croatian Foreign Minister Marija Pejcinovic Buric signed an agreement with a UN representative in Albania Brian Williams to help a project to fight marine pollution, in the presence of Albanian Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati and Minister of Tourism, Blendi Klosi.

Around 4,000 Bulgarians take cruises every year, Rumen Draganov, Director of the Institute for Analyzes and Assessments in Tourism, said.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development plans to allocate loans worth up to 1.2 billion euros for the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) this year, part of a $40 billion project to bring new gas supplies to Europe, an EBRD official said.

BRUSSELS - European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu will be paying a working visit to Serbia on Thursday and Friday.

Serbia is already a very active and valuable partner in cooperation, especially in the Danube and Adriatic-Ionian macroregional strategies, Cretu said before the trip to Belgrade.

The US has again declared its strong support for Croatia's planned project to build a floating terminal to receive liquefied natural gas, LNG, on the island of Krk.

The project will help to diversify the gas supply in the country and in the region - currently largely dependent on Russia.

Transport chaos caused by the fall of the first snow in Croatia, local Index reported.

Extreme rainfall and strong winds have made traffic impossible in many areas of the country. Authorities have banned the circulation of lorries with trailers and semi-trailers on the roads from the northwestern Istrian peninsula and the Adriatic port of Rijeka to the interior of the country.

The reduction of value-added tax on ferry tickets would give the Greek islands an economic boost without provoking a negative fiscal impact, the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) argues in a study titled "The Contribution of Passenger Shipping to the Greek Economy."

Washington aims to help make northern Greece an entry point for the transfer of gas and commodities into the Western Balkans, according to US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt.

The United States has sent a clear message of support for international interconnection projects for the transmission of natural gas from sources outside Russia - which Greece is also involved in - through Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt.