Visegrad countries push for more gas imports in 2030 deal

October 22, 2014

Prague – The Visegrad plus 2 countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, together with Romania and Bulgaria) have all included a strong statement of support for the Southern Gas Corridor into their comments to the drafted EU 2030 Council conclusions to begin in Brussels this Thursday.

The Southern Gas Corridor is a set of planned projects meant to bring gas into Europe from the Caspian region, including three major pipelines: South Caucasus, Trans Anatolian and Trans Adriatic.

In the „energy security” section of the draft Council conclusions, each of the submissions of the six countries from Central and Eastern Europe contains an identical paragraph which states the need for the Southern Gas Corridor projects to be expedited:

„Member States and the Commission will ensure that the implementation of the critical projects of common interest in the gas sector identified in the European Energy Security Strategy, in particular the North South Gas Corridor and the Southern Corridor, will be completed in expedite manner, bearing in mind the necessity of increasing the energy security of the most vulnerable Member states.”

This paragrah is a totally new addition that each of the V4+2 countries have made to the Council conclusions since their meeting September 30th when they coordinated their positions in order to get more out of the bargain with the rest of the EU member states.

During his European Parliament hearing last week, Slovakia’s EU Commissioner designate Maros Sevcovic, the future EU Commission Vice-President for Energy Union, indicated his support for the realisation of the Southern Gas Corridor projects.

"V4+2 countries seem keen on shooting themselves in the foot with this one," comments Ondrej Pasek, Bankwatch energy campaigner. „They strongly argue for energy security, but instead of pushing for financing of high energy efficiency and renewable targets to help their own citizens and companies get rid of dangerous energy dependency, they just want to put more money in pipelines. Yet the Southern Gas Corridor can only source gas from politically problematic regions, such as the Caucasus or the Middle East. Can this be called security in any sense?”

A 2030 energy efficiency target for the EU of 30 percent would reduce gas demand in Europe by as much as 20 times the import volumes that would be coming through the Southern Gas Corridor, making this new piece of mega-infrastructure redundant. In their coordinated positions, V4+2 countries are all calling for a non-binding 25 percent energy efficiency country for the whole block (not for each individual country).

A study published on the 20th of October by the World Resources Institute shows that more investment in renewables and energy efficiency in three sectors (housing, industry and power generation) can cut natural gas imports to the European Union by 50% and CO2 emissions by 49%.

For Thursday’s summit, Sweden and Denmark have been pushing for at least 30% binding energy efficiency target, with Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal supporting the 30 percent figure (not more). From the Western European countries, only Cyprus and the UK advocate for no energy efficiency target at all. There is no mention of the Southern Gas Corridor in the comments of the countries wanting a higher energy efficiency target.

„In their positions, the Visegrad countries are not only turning against many Western European countries who would want a more ambitious energy efficiency target, but they are also cannibalising EU efforts to build a strong internal power market,” comments Bankwatch’s energy camppaigner Kuba Gogolewski. „This is because they are suggesting financing for more gas pipelines should be given priority over investments in power interconnectors which would help to integrate the European energy market and especially allow countries to share their renewables.”

Comments of V4+2 countries on the draft conclusions of the EU Summit explicitly ask to delete a sentence asking the Union and Member States to secure adequate financing for interconnectors.

”An ambitious EU climate and energy policy for the period after 2020 would essentially eliminate the need for massive investments in natural gas import pipelines such as the Southern Gas Corridor or LNG terminals,” concludes Kuba Gogolewski. „By not adopting ambitious climate policies and giving in to the Visegrad group pressure, the EU would only turn the mantra of gas companies, that we 'need' more gas, into a sef-fulfilling prophecy.”