European Commission Unveils Projects of Common Interest, South Stream Excluded

The European Commission adopted on Monday a list of 250 key energy infrastructure projects that will benefit from accelerated licensing procedures and could have access to the €5,85 billion budget allocated for the period 2014-2020. 

The list includes 140 projects related to electricity transmission and storage and about 100 projects intended to increase the efficiency of the gas markets. The European Commission included projects to bolster gas transmission, storage and liquefied natural gas (LNG). 

“We have to make sure that our limited funds are used wisely and that EU money goes where it can create most benefits to European consumers. With this list of energy infrastructure projects and their accompanying benefits, we also hope to attract more investors,” Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said in a note released on Monday.

The list includes the TAP pipeline, the Swinoujscie LNG terminal in Poland and a Baltic LNG terminal. The document recurrently refers to the gas corridor from Azerbaijan, but it does not even mention Russia. However, the European Commission wrote about the PCI Austria – Italy interconnection between Haiming (AT)/ Überackern (DE) – Tarvisio (IT). According to the plans, the South Stream project will end up in Tarvisio.

These “project of common interests” (PCI) were selected in order to integrate national energy markets and enable countries to diversify their energy sources.