The most visible difference between the crisis in January 2006 and the one in January 2009 is that the then non-EU Bulgaria was not affected by the first crisis, whereas Hungary and Romania suffered cuts of 40 and 20 percent in supply, respectively, in 2006. However, all of these countries, as full members of the EU, are now suffering from the complete cessation of the flow of natural gas from Ukraine. For this reason, it is obvious that the EU's energy security policies lag behind its policies of enlargement and that newly admitted EU member states have been affected by these failed policies.
The declaration "Energy Security for Europe," prepared by the European Commission in January 2007 and given to the Council of the European Union and European Parliament, states that immediate measures shall be taken with respect to the security of supply and competitiveness in the field of energy security. To this end, the declaration urges the development of projects that will create resource diversification as regards energy security.
The Nabucco project, which aims at transporting natural gas reserves from the Middle East and the Caspian Sea region to European markets, is important because it serves as a model for the diversification of the target resource and other similar projects. It also serves as a ground for common efforts between the EU and Turkey in the field of energy.
Who is giving priority to Nabucco? At this point, we should take a look at the situation of Turkey, which does not have a problem with energy security thanks to existing contracts it has signed and the fact that it is close to supplier countries. Obviously, there are some benefits in the project for Turkey, and the Nabucco project has become a priority for the EU, considering that it provides the opportunity to access alternative resources. In the current situation, it seems that EU energy security depends on short-term supply contracts between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The consumption of natural gas in EU countries is steadily rising. Considering all these factors, we could conclude that Nabucco is a project of priority for EU energy policy.
The EU, which is trying to develop energy policies to optimize the relationship between sustainability, supply security and competitiveness in an integrated framework, ignores the necessity of it making a choice among these approaches, approaches that are, actually, in conflict with each other. The recent development shows that what is sustainable is a crisis between Russia and Ukraine and its impacts on the region. An emphasis on competitiveness is favorable for suppliers, but the projects that need to be pushed though to achieve supply security are being eroded by EU legislators' focus on the preservation of the free market. The EU should give priority to supply security and take the necessary steps to ensure flexibility in trade with producer countries in an attempt to diversify energy supplies and meet the needs of developing markets.
The realization of Nabucco and other similar projects is possible only if the benefits for transit countries such as Turkey are adequately guaranteed. Discussions suggesting that this should be maintained through liberal market conditions raise concerns. The latest crisis has shown that the regional natural gas market is not so liberal. Gazprom is able to manipulate the entire market in an attempt to make larger profits. It is possible to see the recent joint working platform formed between Gazprom and OMV, a partner in Nabucco, in February 2008 as normal, if considered from the perspective of the free market. Another possible issue is that the goals of Nabucco and other similar projects are to attract new partners and to ensure that these partners will never block a further course of action under new conditions.
In light of these new conditions and the ongoing supply crisis, the route of the Nabucco pipeline should be restructured and revised; the revised version should start from Turkey and pass through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. The final stop of the route should be Austria, from where the line will reach out to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland. In this way, the project will have access to Germany and to a larger market, making sure that cooperation in this field is spread to a broader platform.
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