JOSE MANUEL BAROSSO, PRESIDENT OF THE EC, ON THE GAS CRISIS: Romania has a crucial part to play in the region

Russian officials of state company Gazprom have announced yesterday that Romania"s involvement in the South Stream pipeline project remains uncertain.

Amid the Russian-Ukrainian gas crisis and at a time when the entire European Union is looking for solutions for reducing its reliance on Russian energy, president Traian Băsescu, accompanied by the head of the Government, Emil Boc, have left for Brussels to discuss with the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso the issue of energy security.

At the end of the debates, Băsescu announced that our country is extremely interested in the system for connecting the internal infrastructure of Romania to that of Hungary.

The head of state explained: "We have discussed the energy issue. Romania wholeheartedly supports the creation of alternative projects that would guarantee the energy supply of the EU member states. Also, Romania will be behind the projects proposed by the Commission, in particular those related to the interconnection of the gas pipelines".

After announcing that our country was not affected by the cutting of the Russian gas supply, Traian Băsescu expressed his regret that, although Romania had the necessary resources, it could not support its neighbors, because of the lack of an interconnected system.

"Apart from supplying electricity, the gas transport system was not interconnected and we could not help any of our neighbors", the head of Romania explained.

On the other hand, in order to replace the amount of gas that has been imported from the Russian Federation, our president announced that our thermal plants will be switched over to heating oil and that the energy production will be switched to alternative fuels.

In turn, Barroso has announced that our country has a crucial part to play in the region, as well as on a continental level, and has outlined that the Union must have a common energy policy and must reduce its dependency on fossil fuels.

"We must have all the countries of the European become interconnected to a common energy grid", outlined the chairman of the EC, who reiterated the importance of finalizing the Nabucco pipeline.

Concerning the two gas mains - Nabucco and South Stream - our country remains interested in both projects, even though Brussels is not too happy with the Russian South Stream project. Even though it wasn"t long ago that Băsescu was seen as a staunch opponent of Kremlin, he left the impression that he is trying to improve relations with Russia, in particular with Gazprom: "Romania continues to believe that the Russian Federation will become a EU partner and we will have to find the diplomatic resources, the patience even, for the partnership with Russia to become a reality".

In turn, Barroso seemed a little more aloof on the relationship with Moscow, mentioning, however, that the EU does not intend to revise the partnership with Russia.