EU official urges Moscow not to block Nabucco pipeline

The Nabucco gas pipeline remains a priority for the European Union but the bloc could also back Russia's South Stream project, EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said Tuesday."The European Union's priority is clear. We want to develop the southern corridor. The European Union wants a direct connection to the Caspian and the Middle East region," Oettinger told an energy forum in Sofia.The key component in the southern corridor plan is the Nabucco pipeline to bring Caspian gas to Europe, thereby reducing European dependence on Russian gas supplies via Ukraine.

With all the necessary preparation completed for the EU's Nabucco gas pipeline, it is time for the companies involved to start building it, EU energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on Thursday.

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, visiting Azerbaijan to secure gas supplies for the EU, said on Friday that Baku has expressed support for an ambitious European pipeline project.The proposed Nabucco pipeline between Turkey and Austria is an important part of the EU's Southern Gas Corridor project to bring Caspian Sea and Middle Eastern gas to Europe, reducing its dependence on Russian energy.

The European Union's energy chief Wednesday unveiled an ambitious 10-year trillion-euro energy investment plan for a single EU energy network to cut fossil fuel imports and fight climate change."There is no single energy market," Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger told a news conference. "We need to render energy European."Europe's current system was "like 19th century dukedoms rather than a modern open Europe," he said.

European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said German energy companies should hand over to the state at least half their profits accrued from extending the life of nuclear power stations.He was speaking in an interview with the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung Saturday as German bosses and economic figures have lashed out at a government proposal to tax nuclear energy production.