An important step was taken at the end of last week in Riga towards deepening and extending gas supply cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe. The foreign ministers of Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania signed a political memorandum of understanding for connecting these countries’ gas transmission systems.

The project called Eastring will bring gas from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, Cyprus and Russia and will provide reverse deliveries from the gas hubs in Western Europe. This is actually a step towards the creation of a vertical gas corridor which is particularly valuable to Bulgaria after the South Stream gas pipeline project fell through – a project that was supposed to supply Central and Western Europe with Russian gas via Bulgarian territory. Even after Moscow substituted it for a new project – Turkish Stream – Sofia is not abandoning its plans of maneuvering for a better geostrategic position on the European gas map and has been bringing forth idea after idea, most of which Brussels has discarded as trifling. Still, the idea to connect Bulgaria’s gas pipelines with the gas transmission systems of its neighbours and the countries of Central Europe by a vertical gas corridor was welcomed by the European Commission which went as far as to make it clear that it may even finance such a project. It is in the light of this need of integration and hence more independence from Russian gas supplies that the signing of the memorandum should be viewed.

The first step, at least at a political level has now been made. What follows now will be prolonged economic and technical studies and analyses, the first task being to select which of the two options discussed is to be put in place. Because it is still unclear whether Eastring will include only Slovakia, Hungary and Romania or whether it will also extend to Bulgaria. But even at this early stage it is clear that Sofia signed the memorandum because it is aware the hand it holds is a strong one.

Sure enough all three gas pipelines that pass or will pass across Turkey to deliver gas from Russia or Azerbaijan will have to gain a foothold on European territory close to the borders with Bulgaria. The most direct and shortest link with Central and Western Europe – an itinerary that the scrapped Nabucco-West gas pipeline was supposed to follow – passes via the territory of Bulgaria. The Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline, Turkish Stream as well as the Trans-Adriatic pipeline will all “set foot” on European land just a few kilometers from Bulgaria and to extend them to the West and to the North in the direction of Central and Western Europe is not only logical, but also cost-effective and profitable. This is perhaps the place to make mention of the as yet unconfirmed rumours that despite the friction between Moscow and Sofia over South Stream, negotiations are now underway on a ”small-scale” version of the project that is supposed to “land” on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. Though it may be much smaller compared to the initially planned annual capacity of 63 billion cubic meters of gas, the new project goes far beyond Bulgaria’s modest import needs of around 3 billion cubic meters; the remainder will evidently be directed towards the continent. In light of this, is there anything more natural or logical than to connect Bulgaria’s gas transmission system with the systems of Romania, Hungary and Slovakia? All the more so that the construction of a bi-directional transmission route linking Bulgaria with Greece and Romania is now at an advanced stage.

The political accord on creating a gas ring linking the four European countries stands every chance of being given the go-ahead by Brussels. Because the initiative is feasible, mutually advantageous and in synchronicity with the EU’s policy of energy diversification and independence.

English version: Milena Daynova