The European Commission will Allocate €200 Million for the Norway-Poland Gas Pipeline

The Baltic Pipe project will receive €200 million as financial support from the European Commission. The pipeline will supply gas from Norway to Poland. The European Commission will allocate additional funding for the construction of the Baltic Pipe, which will connect Poland, Denmark and Norway. Agreement on the allocation of almost €215 million was signed on Monday, April 15, in Brussels in the presence of Vice-President of the European Commission for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič and Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki, the European Commission press service reports. It is planned that Baltic Pipe will allow to supply gas from the North Sea to Poland from 2022 and later — to the Baltic Countries. In addition, the pipeline will be able to transport gas from Poland (including delivered to the country liquefied natural gas, LNG) to Denmark and Sweden. Earlier Brussels has already allocated funds for the economic and technical evaluation of the project. In 2018, gas from Russia made almost 67 percent of gas imported to Poland by the Polish state-controlled oil and gas company PGNiG. Baltic Pipe is part of Warsaw's strategy to reduce its dependence on Russian gas. The European Union seeks to diversify gas supplies to its market, in particular through LNG, as well as through new pipelines, such as EastMed Pipeline, which should connect gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean with Greece and Italy. As the gas pipeline system in the EU is very unevenly developed, Brussels is also contributing to the laying of new pipes with the aim of developing a single EU blue fuel market. The same day, April 15, the EU Council finally amended the gas directive, which will extend to pipelines to and from third countries. In particular, this will affect Nord Stream 2 and significantly complicate its commissioning. DW