BRUSSELS, February 25. /TASS/. Any natural gas pipelines, including the new joint project of Russia’s Gazprom, Italian Edison and Greece’s DEPA on construction of a gas pipeline across the Black Sea should meet all EU standards, press service of the European Commission (EC) told TASS on Thursday.
"We saw information about the agreement of three private companies, including Gazprom, on the intention to build a new gas pipeline in the Black Sea. The European Commission will monitor compliance of this project with all European standards, including the Third Energy Package and other energy market regulations," the EC said. At the same time, "no official information has been received so far" regarding the potential parameters of the future project, press service of the EC said.
Gazprom, Edison and DEPA signed a memorandum on gas supplies from Russia over the Black Sea bottom from third countries to Greece and from Greece to Italy, the Russian gas holding said on Wednesday. The purpose of the agreement is to organize the southern route of Russian gas supplies to Europe.
"The agreement reflects interests of the parties in the route of Russian natural gas deliveries across the Black Sea via third countries to Greece and from Greece to Italy. To this purpose the parties intend to maximize deliverables of work performed by Edison and DEPA within the ITGI Poseidon project [Turkey-Greece-Italy interconnector pipeline — TASS]," Gazprom said.