Greece, Russia Sign Memorandum for Turkish Stream Extension

Greece and Russia reportedly signed a Memorandum on Friday to extend the Turkish Stream gas to Greece. The signing follows a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Panagiotis Lafazanis, Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy of the Republic of Greece on Thursday.

‘The parties addressed the construction of capacities in Greece for supplying European markets with Russian pipeline gas from the Turkish Stream gas pipeline. In particular, an emphasis was put on the preparation of a pertinent inter-governmental memorandum’ reads the note published on Friday, referring to Thursday’s meeting. 

According to several newspapers, after signing the deal, Greece said that funding would come from Russia’s development bank VEB. 

Lafazanis said that the agreement with Russia is not meant to be a political instrument to pile pressure on European leaders to accept Athens’ requests. He said that the cooperation was the result of both countries’ interest. 

During the first day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Moscow unveiled its strategy to maintain its share in the European markets, focusing on the Balkans and Germany to avoid transit through Ukraine.  

Ironically, the European Commission referred Greece to the EU Court of Justice for failing to transpose the Energy Efficiency Directive, and sent Germany “a final warning” to ensure the full transportation of the Directive. 

‘Germany has now two months to comply with this obligation, following that the Commission may decide to refer it to the EU Court of Justice and ask for financial penalties’ reads a note released on Thursday.