BRATISLAVA, January 25, (WEBNOVINY) — Member countries of the Visegrad Group (V4) have established a working group to lobby at the European Commission in support for their project of north and south energy interconnection. On Tuesday, the ministers of economy of Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic signed a declaration calling for support in implementation of projects dealing with natural gas, crude oil and electricity and which outlines the preliminary technical design of the energy interconnection north-south. At a press conference after the meeting, the Slovak Minister of Economy, Juraj Miskov, said that with signing the declaration, the implementation of the north-south interconnection was launched.
“We created a working group, which will participate at a session coordinated by the European Commission. This session will take place on February 3 in Brussels. The group with the V4 countries, along with Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia, will search for ways of implementing the project and for financial resources,” said Miskov. “The declaration gives a strong signal for our region to be perceived as one that is capable of claiming its rights,” said the Czech Minister of Trade Martin Kocourek. “It is very important, that this project is financially supported with EU money,” added the Polish Minister of Economy Waldemar Pawlak.
The first partial project of the whole north – south interconnection will be the gas interconnection between Poland and the Czech Republic. “It is the first part of the north – south interconnection puzzle,” said Kocourek. Another partial project will be the Slovak -Hungarian gas interconnection. The Prime Ministers of Slovakia and Hungary plan to sign the treaty on building this pipeline on Friday.
SITA