The Project of Nabucco Natural Gas Pipeline was on the agenda at the Brussels visit of Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In this first visit of Turkish Premier to Brussels upon an invitation of the President of the European Commission since 1996, Erdogan gave the message that if the Greek Cypriot administration blocks the opening of energy chapter between Turkey and EU, they would review their position on Nabucco pipeline.
Nabucco alternative project, which would carry the gas from Central Asia to Europe via Turkey, gain importance because of gas crisis caused by a dispute between Russia and Ukraine that has led to gas shortages across the continent, was on Erdogan's agenda. Erdogan called EU not to prefer Southern Cyprus, which is located far away from Europe and with only 700-800 thousand people, to Turkey with 70 million people.
European Union aims to reduce Europe's dependence on Russian gas with the proposed Nabucco pipeline that would carry supplies from the Caspian Sea or Middle East via Turkey to Europe. The pipeline, which has six shareholders OMV of Austria, MOL of Hungary, Transgaz of Romania, Bulgargaz of Bulgaria, Botas of Turkey and RWE of Germany, is proposed to carry up to 30 billion meters of gas per year, or roughly 6 per cent of EU consumption.