Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-05-04

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] PM and development minister discuss energy policy

[01] PM and development minister discuss energy policy

After the meeting, Sioufas stressed that Greece was being converted into a major energy junction for Europe and was acquiring geostrategic importance in the energy sector after the agreements struck at the International Energy Agency (IEA) meeting in Paris on Monday and Tuesday.

Sioufas said a meeting with his Italian counterpart Claudio Scajola had resulted in a decision for the signature of a cooperation protocol for a Greece-Italy undersea natural gas pipeline that will then branch off into the rest of Europe. In talks with his Turkish counterpart, meanwhile, they discussed the possibility that the prime ministers of Greece and Turkey will jointly inaugurate the Greece-Turkey natural gas pipeline the end of June.

The Greek-Turkish pipeline will link up directly with that going to Italy.

The minister noted that all this, in combination with the planned Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline and another envisated pipeline linking the northwestern Greek region of Epirus with Croatia and Austria, as well as the development of the electricity grid, will make Greece geostrategically important in terms of energy.

Sioufas also said that in meetings with energy and economy ministers of the 30 member-states of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the discussion had focused on the unprecedented rise in oil prices and that a decision was made for extended and systematic dialogue between OPEC, Russia and other countries so that they could deal with the repercussions for consumers.

(Photo supplied by ANA/Katerina Mavrona)

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