The president of the European Union's executive arm traveled to Bulgaria on Saturday to open a natural gas link between the country and Greece.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, spoke at a ceremony in Bulgaria about the importance of the line to limiting opportunities for Russia to use its gas and oil reserves to retaliate against the EU.
The energy security situation for Europe has been changed by this project. Von der Leyen told the audience that the project meant freedom.
The European Commission made a 250 million euro commitment to the project.
After Moscow decided to turn its natural gas deliveries into a political weapon, the importance of the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria line has increased dramatically.
Fuel flowed through the Baltic Pipe, which was built to carry gas from the North Sea to a compressor station in northwestern Poland. Next year it is expected to be full.
The region's independence from Russian natural gas was the focus of the opening of the line.
Russia has stopped some of its gas deliveries to Europe in order to protest against the EU's sanctions. Concerns about the security of Europe's energy supplies were made worse by the unusual leaks on the twoNord Stream pipes.
Russia cut off gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland after they refused to pay in Russian currency. Relations between the former Soviet bloc allies have soured recently. Moscow angrily responded to the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats by Bulgaria last month.
The consequences of Russia's war are felt by people in Europe. Europe will have enough gas for the winter thanks to this project. Europe has everything it needs to leave Russia. It's a political decision.
The conduit goes from Komotini in northeastern Greece to Stara Zagora in central Bulgaria. There will be an initial capacity of 3 billion kilowatts of gas a year and the possibility of future expansion to 5 billion kilowatts.
Teodora Georgieva, the executive of the project, said the project would help supply other countries.
The opportunity to supply gas to the Western Balkans is there.
The Baltic Pipe was given the go-ahead in 2016 by Poland's right-wing government, which wanted to make the country completely independent of Russian energy sources.
The entire route is over 200 kilometers in length. A new compressor station and an expansion of a receiving terminal are part of the expansion inDenmark.
The EU supported the project.
That's right.
She reported from Warsaw.
That's right.
The war in Ukraine is covered by the Associated Press.
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