site.btaPresident Plevneliev: "European Energy Union Will Raise EU Integration to New Level"

President Plevneliev:
"European Energy Union Will Raise
EU Integration to New Level"


Sofia, February 10 (BTA) - Meeting with European commissioners
in Sofia on February 9, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev
said that the building of a European Energy Union will raise the
EU's political and economic integration to a new level, the
President's Press Secretariat reported. Plevneliev said that on
matters of energy the EU should speak in one voice, both inside
the bloc and with external partners.

Plevneliev conferred with European Commission Vice President for
the Energy Union Maros Sefcovic and European Climate Action and
Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete, who were in Sofia for
the inauguration of a High Level Group on Central and South
Eastern Europe Gas Connectivity.

Plevneliev said that promoting energy connectivity should be a
key priority in the EU's energy policy, and it is a necessary
condition for improving energy security. "Unfortunately, in the
winter of 2009 Bulgaria saw what it means to be dependent on a
single supplier of natural gas," he said, noting the country's
vulnerability over the last few decades as to high prices of
natural gas due to the lack of market competition and
alternative sources.

"Energy sources should be used as a commodity traded freely on
the common European market, not as a weapon. In the field of
energy, our weapon is integration," Plevneliev said.

Sefcovic said that the big challenge facing EU nations is to
rethink their national approaches to energy security and find an
effective solution at the regional level and EU-wide.
Plevneliev responded by saying that the goal of diversifying
energy sources and energy transmission routes is a common
objective for the countries of Southeastern Europe, which should
pool their efforts to build a regional natural gas market.

Canete called on the EU member states to avail themselves of the
European Commission's support and invest in raising the energy
efficiency of their economies. Unlike large energy projects,
energy efficiency requires much less investment and contributes
directly to the creation of new jobs, Canete said.

An action plan to diversify natural gas supplies for
Southeastern Europe will be drawn up within a few months, the
President's Press Secretariat said. PK/VE



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