This is historic: by 2029, Europe will receive electricity from Azerbaijan. Between 2023 and 2029, 1,195 km of cable will be laid, of which 1,100 under the Black Sea, for a total of 2 billion euros. The project was presented in Bucharest by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, who, in the presence of the Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, and three leaders of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe,
justified : “We have decided to turn our backs on fossil fuels and diversify our energy supply with reliable partners.” Implied: not Russia.
Of course, energy-producing countries are rarely models of democracy. But the Azeri president Ilham Aliyev, even at the cost of making the Kremlin cough, wants to be reassuring towards Brussels: “Our contribution to European energy security is a new bridge between the EU and Azerbaijan.”
Another notorious pro-Russian, on the other side of the Black Sea, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made no secret of his enthusiasm in Bucharest: “We are preparing to build the longest submarine power cable. If you were younger, I’d say you must be rock’n’roll!” How to forget his tense relations with Brussels. In addition to Hungary and Romania, Moldova and the Ukraine will also be relieved of this energy alternative.
A European sea
But that’s not all, specifies the Romanian presidency. In a statement, he outlines other areas of cooperation, such as new energy technologies, hydrogen production, expansion of transit infrastructure. Very important investment for a long forgotten region.
To view this Twitter content, you must accept cookies Social networks.
These cookies allow you to share or react directly on the social networks to which you are connected or to integrate content initially published on these social networks. They also allow social networks to use your visits to our sites and applications for personalization and advertising targeting.
Manage my choices
I authorize
During the communist period, the Black Sea was only a beach destination for an elite of communist leaders. But henceforth it can no longer be considered a Russian or Turkish lake. It must be seen as a European sea, a “
energy pole“, in the words of Ursula von der Leyen, via Batumi, the great Georgian port, and Constanta, in Romania, between Western Europe and, beyond the Caspian Sea, Central Asia.
A chance for Europe, but a disaster for Russia. Because the cable under the Black Sea is a new initiative to divert Moscow. The Old Continent is still trying to reduce its dependence on Russian hydrocarbons. In the longer term, it multiplies the development opportunities for Romania and Bulgaria, EU member countries, but also and above all for Ukraine and Georgia, candidates for European integration.
Ursula von der Leyen thus reminded Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibachvili, in a very political speech, that this infrastructure constitutes “a new road full of opportunities for Georgia, a country with a European destiny that plays an increasingly important role in the region”.
