Bulgaria, Greece back energy, political integration of Balkans into EU

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov and his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias on Thursday said their countries supported the European integration of the Balkans.

"As member states of the European Union (EU) and NATO, Bulgaria and Greece are responsible for security and stability in the region," Mitov said at a joint press conference after bilateral talks.

The two countries have been conducting a consistent policy in support of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of the Western Balkans, Mitov said.

Of course, the integration could be accomplished when fulfilling the relevant criteria including good neighborly relations, Mitov said.

Bulgaria relies on Russia for 96 percent of its gas needs through a single pipeline and was the most impacted when Russia halted gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine in the winter of 2008.

Mitov said that Bulgaria has been consistently supporting all initiatives aimed at strengthening the energy security of Southeastern Europe and the EU.

"Our country is interested in participating in the realization of strategic EU initiatives to build the necessary infrastructure and diversification of energy supply: the Southern Gas Corridor, interconnections along the axis North-South, vertical gas corridor, access to liquefied natural gas, as well as the reverse transmission of energy flows from Central and Eastern Europe," Mitov said.

For Bulgaria, the vertical gas corridor had the most significant potential for energy security in Southeast Europe and the EU as a whole, he said.

"We have to say that energy diversification and the Energy Union of the EU start from here, from the interconnectivity between Bulgaria and Greece," Mitov said.

"The Greece-Bulgaria-Romania vertical pipeline, like all the major development infrastructure projects in our countries and in the Balkans, is a stabilizing index in the region," Kotzias said in turn. Endit