Europe’s energy security requires strategic decisions
21 June 2015 News
Minister Daniel Mitov was one of the key speakers at the 10th anniversary meeting of the international security forum GLOBSEC 2015, which took place on 19 – 21 June in Bratislava. Bulgaria’s top diplomat participated in the specialized Energy forum of GLOBSEC together with Miroslav Lajčák, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, as well as in the panel Energy: A Perfect (DIS)Union?, with the participation of Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the EC, and Mirek Topolánek, former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.
Nowadays energy serves as a political weapon in the hands of third parties, said Minister Mitov. Southeastern Europe is the most isolated part of the continent when we look at energy security and our response has to combine commercial with strong political tools to build up our defence. We, the member-states, have to decide on how to draw up the energy map of Europe in order to achieve supply security and reliability, he said.
The Foreign Minister emphasized that we should seek strategic solutions rather than temporary ones. According to him the construction of the Vertical Gas Corridor and its connection to the Central European network via reverse interconnections will eliminate the isolation and the risks stemming from it.
For his part, the Slovak Foreign Minister said that the energy map of Europe is being re-shaped and in this regard the EU has to build up new energy partnerships so that it could decrease its dependency and increase its energy security. Maroš Šefčovič underscored that all member-states are involved in talks on how to ensure the energy security of Southeastern Europe.
The diversification of the energy sources and routes is of particular importance not only for Bulgaria, but for the security of the EU as a whole. In this regard, the two foreign ministers focused on the East Ring project as one of the opportunities, contributing to the diversification of both routes and the sources of supply. Minister Mitov emphasized that the construction of the interconnector between Bulgaria and Greece is particularly important for our country. Discussing the Energy Union, he expressed support for a common European energy network not only for electricity, but also to provide each EU member-state with the opportunity to buy gas from any supplier at commercial prices.