ANKARA - Turkish State Minister & Chief EU Negotiator Egemen Bagis said Monday that Nabucco was not only a pipeline project but also a stability and peace project.
Bagis said in a statement that Nabucco project would be located on a strategic geography for EU.
The 3,300-kilometer pipeline will carry Caspian and Central Asian natural gas to Austria in Europe to reduce EU dependence on Russian gas. Nearly 2,000 kilometers of the pipeline will run in Turkey.
EU wants to reach the heart of the project, Central Asian countries, through Turkey which is currently holding accession talks with the 27-nation bloc, Bagis said.
Recalling that EU was created on the idea of forming an organization for pooling Franco-German coal and steel production in the aftermath of the World War II, Bagis said, "these two strategic raw materials have united European countries. Today, Turkey strengthens the Union by solving its biggest problem, the energy crisis, with another strategic product which is natural gas."
"So, Turkey has started to solve Europe's problems yet without being a member," Bagis said.