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GAERC talks blocked by Romania
Romania has blocked the consensus at the talks held, on Monday, in Brussels, during the GAERC meeting, because from the package of energy financing, the Nabucco project has been excluded, sources from Brussels told Agerpres.The main topic during GAERC has been the preparation of the spring European Council, and the package of projects in the field of energy, that are a priority, as part of the European plan of economic redressing.On Feb 19, the energy ministers in the EU member states agreed, in principle, for keeping the Nabucco project and the energy inter-connections Arad - Szeged and Giurgiu - Ruse, on the list of priority energy projects presented by the European Commission. The agreement, in principle, of the ministers of energy of the EU has come after, in Jan., the European Commission proposed the allotment of 250 million euros for the Nabucco energy project, and of some 30 million euros more for the finalization of the interconnection of the Arad-Szeged gas pipeline, whose funding has been suspended for more than five years. The importance of the latest is major, with the gas pipeline linking Romania and Hungary and making a connection between the gas network of the European Union. The next step in the finalization of the energy projects on the list forwarded by the European Commission should be the adoption by the Council of the finance ministers in the EU.The Nabucco pipeline, which should transit Romania and be an alternative to the gas in the network of Russian pipelines has been, at least so far, presented as a priority project of the EU, supported by the United States. But, of late, contradictory statements have made it seem in a serious competition with the South Stream project, to which Bulgaria and Serbia have been co-opted.