Prague - The European Union will look to Iraq, Egypt and Central Asia on Friday in a bid to break Russia's dominance of gas supplies to Europe, diplomatic sources told the German Press Agency dpa. A quarter of all the natural gas burned in the EU currently comes from Russia, and the bloc is keen to reduce that dependency by opening pipelines to new suppliers further to the South and East.
To boost that goal, the EU is set to hold a summit in Prague with key players in gas production and transit: Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
At the summit, entitled the "Southern Corridor - New Silk Road," partners will pledge to "overcome the obstacles" to a series of gas pipelines from Central Asia and the Middle East through Turkey to Europe, diplomatic sources said.
In particular, countries with gas supplies are expected to pledge concrete volumes to European consumers, while the EU is set to pledge to buy them - two promises aimed at encouraging private companies to build pipelines to carry the fuel.
EU diplomats hope that Turkey, as the transit route between the East and Europe, will promise to speed up negotiations on the rules and fees covering the new pipelines expected to cross its territory.
One of the pipelines, "Nabucco," is planned to run from Azerbaijan to Austria, with a possible branch from Iran. The other, known as ITGI, is to stretch across Turkey and Greece to Italy.
The question of the EU's reliance on Russian gas shot up the agenda in January when a row between Russia and Ukraine cut gas supplies to a number of EU member states.
The bloc's long-term goal is to reduce its vulnerability to future rows by encouraging the construction of more pipelines to carry gas from more companies based in more countries.
The EU has already pledged 200 million euros (266 million dollars) to the Nabucco project, and 100 million euros to ITGI.
