Europe to sign Nabucco gas pipeline pact

The planned Nabucco gas pipeline, which will take Middle-Eastern gas to Europe, has received a much-needed fillip with a decision by the EU to sign a key agreement next week.

The importance and sensitivity of the international deal were highlighted yesterday, when two of Nabucco’s backers, the Austrian energy group OMV and the German utility RWE, hired Joschka Fischer, the former German minister of foreign affairs, to advise on political communications concerning the €7.9 billion (Dh40.6bn) pipeline’s development.

Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey – the nations through which the pipeline will pass – are to sign the intergovernmental transit agreement in Ankara next Monday.