European Union and Turkey plan to build gas pipeline

Free from dependence on Russia? Xinhua Beijing, July 14 July 13, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria in Ankara signed a gas pipeline construction agreement, the Nabucco pipeline will completely bypass Russia, by way of Turkey and the Balkans, the Central Asia and the Middle East gas transport to Europe. The pipeline, which is 3300 kilometers long and costs $11 billion trillion, is scheduled to be operational in 2015, when it transports 31 billion cubic metres of gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe each year. European officials cheered, calling the "contemporary Silk Road" a powerful way to secure Europe's energy security. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso believes the Nabucco pipeline will "help diversify natural gas sources and routes and is vital to Europe's energy security." "While European countries rejoiced in the plan, outside opinion was not optimistic. The Nabucco pipeline actually has a limited role to meet 10% of Europe's gas demand, while Russia currently supplies Europe with up to 140 billion cubic meters of gas a year, the analysis article on the website of the Time magazine said July 13. Of course, the significance of the Nabucco pipeline can not be ignored, it could forcefully rid Russia of Europe's "energy blackmail."　　Europe's energy dependence on Russia is now hurting the EU's efforts to establish a common European energy market, undermining price transparency and weakening bargaining power with Russia. However, the Nabucco pipeline also faces many problems, it remains to be seen whether the energy dependence on Russia can be effectively countered. First, it is unclear which countries will join the program. "Even a decent map doesn't see what countries will be providing energy and which countries are willing to contribute to pipeline construction," says Annas Jerenkovick, a researcher at Eurasia Group. "Turkmenistan is the world's fourth-largest natural gas reserve and, of course, the Nabucco pipeline gas source, but its energy is out of the Caspian Sea, and currently the surrounding countries have not signed the submarine pipeline agreement." At yesterday's signing conference, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan advocated the pipeline through Iran and Iraq, but the situation in the domestic chaos, the two countries have to let people "at a respectful distance."　　Even within Turkey, Kurdish separatists attacked oil pipelines last year, disrupting the oil pipeline for 19 days. Another problem is funding.　　Although the European Commission has pledged to provide 35 million of dollars in aid, and the EIB has said it will inject $3 billion trillion, there is no private or public capital for financing, and the Nabucco project is uncertain. Even if the Nabucco project finally succeeds, the EU will face other challenges. Thoms Villasco, head of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, argues that "the Nabucco project has limited role in improving European energy security, and Europe's most urgent need is to reduce energy consumption, increase energy efficiency, create a fully free energy market, andUnified voice when dealing with. "Europe cannot get rid of its energy dependence on Russia if it does not do these things well."