EU approves EUR 2.5 million of grant support for implementation of project of Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline

Baku, Azerbaijan (22 February 2017) –Montenegro and Albania have received a joint grant amounting to EUR 2,5 million from the Western Balkan Investment Framework for the conceptual design of the project of the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline through these two countries. Implementation of the project is to begin in the second quarter of 2017, Montenegro’s Economy Minister Dragica Sekulić said earlier today at a meeting of the Unit for Project Management, made up of representatives of ministries and gas transmission system operators of Croatia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline plays a special role in EU policy relating to the diversification of gas sources and security of supply and it is an integral part of the Southern Gas Corridor. From this meeting on, representatives of the Energy Community Secretariat will be taking part in the work of the Unit for Project Management. This way, the project of the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline will ensure additional mobility towards the relevant lists of priority projects of the EU and the region, which means easier financing conditions. The meeting concluded that the countries involved in the project in the time to come will act “as one” towards the relevant international financial institutions. All this, as it was emphasised at the meeting, is another confirmation of the significance of the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline for the region and the European Union.

The meeting of the Unit for Project Management was held on the eve of the Third Ministerial Meeting of the Advisory Council of the Southern Gas Corridor. The meeting, to be held in Baku tomorrow under the auspices of the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), will gather, inter alia, representatives of the ministries responsible for energy of Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Serbia and Turkey, and energy experts of the EU and the United Kingdom.