European energy ministers decided Thursday to propose to the EU to double the funding that has been committed for an interconnection between the Bulgarian and the Greek gas transmission networks.

In January the European Commission decided that the Bulgaria-Greece interconnection will get 20 million euro of a 3.5 billion euro package for emergency energy infrastructure projects. The project is expected to absorb an estimated 125 million euro.

The proposal of the Energy Council will be considered next Monday by the European foreign ministers before it is moved for approval by the state and government leaders of the EU who are meeting in Brussels on March 19-20.

Bulgarian Economy and Energy Minister Peter Dimitrov said that the proposal to increase the funding for the project was "due to the efforts and the good contacts between the Bulgarian government and the European institutions".

He believes that there are good chances to get 50 million euro in EU funding for the project. The Energy Council will also propose that 10 million euro be provided for an interconnection of the gas transmission networks of Bulgaria and Romania. This project has a tag of 30 million euro.

By another decision, the energy ministers will propose to cut the EU funding for the Nabucco gas pipeline project to 200 million euro from the initial 250 million. The reduction does not affect Bulgaria directly as the idea for providing this funding is to offer financial guarantee for the future investors in Nabucco.

The energy ministers expressed support for projects to enable reverse gas flows in the Balkans and more specifically between Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and Romania.

They noted that Ukraine has problems paying for the gas it gets from Russia and that there is a potential threat for a new gas crisis like the one in January.

According to Bulgarian Energy Minister Dimitrov, no such crisis is likely in the near future. However, the Bulgarian crisis management HQs is still operable after January, he added.

Source: BTA