Sofia to host gas summit

PanARMENIAN.Net - Bulgaria's initiative to organize a summit on Natural Gas for Europe Security and Partnership resulted from the intensified dialogue between the Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, and heads of state from the Caspian region and Central Asia for the past two years, the press office of the Bulgarian Embassy told PanARMENIAN.Net



Those discussions demonstrated that partnership between key producers, transit countries, and consumers should be encouraged by meaningful dialogue on the highest level involving all stakeholders.



Invitations to the Sofia Summit were extended to 28 countries from South East Europe, the Black Sea region and the Caspian region, Central Asia, European Union Member States that are directly involved in the development of the Southern Gas Corridor, the USA, Russia, the EU Presidency, and the European Commission.



The Sofia Summit to be held from April 24 and 25 will practically follow up on the Second Strategic Energy Review debate with the benefit of involving major present and future energy suppliers.



The goal of this Summit will be to engage EU's major energy partners in a dialogue on the EU energy security approach. Accordingly, EU Member States will become aware of the political will of producers and transit countries to satisfy their interests in line with the proposed new EU Energy Security and Solidarity Action Plan.



Bulgaria would propose a discussion on the economic and political context of EU's growing natural gas needs. One topical task in this context would be the development of what the EC refers to as the new generation of energy interdependence provisions with the partners of the European Union.



The business part of the Summit is planned to discuss trends, principles, and policies to enhance Europe's energy security, and some natural gas projects that are key to the area of South Europe.