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Polish Briefing 1 June, 2018 9:00 am   
COMMENTS: Mateusz Gibała

Polish Briefing: Baltic Pipe schedule is not in danger. The EU will not support fossil fuels?

What goes on in Poland on the 1st of June.

Naimski: The Baltic Pipe schedule is not in danger

In recent days media has paid much attention to reports that the project of the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline running from Norway through Denmark to Poland recorded serious delays, which would be dangerous due to the ending contract with Gazprom that Poland does not want to renew. Tthe Government Plenipotentiary for strategic energy infrastructure Piotr Naimski referred to the case on Polish Radio 24.

– It’s a blown provocation, no secret data has been passed on to anyone. Such actions will accompany this project, but we will build Baltic Pipe, despite criticism. We’ll make it – said Naimski. He said that such activities are aimed at Polish interests: – The details of this provocation will be examined. The whole investment and all people involved in it are under appropriate protection – he said.

– Baltic Pipe is an element of the entire diversification strategy. The gas pipeline will be ready in 2022, and the schedule is not threatened. LNG and gas from the Norwegian shelf will be able to satisfy all of Poland’s gas demand, which will allow us to become independent from Russia – said the government’s plenipotentiary. He added that Poland would be able to sell additional gas to its neighbors using interconnectors that are already being created.

– At the end of this year, an agreement will be signed to build the Baltic Pipe between Gaz-System and Energinet. Investor talks are already under way, and assumptions for construction are already accepted. Environmental, geophysical and geotechnical studies are carried out – said Naimski.

– The time allowed for the construction of the Baltic Pipe is two years, two full construction seasons. It is not only about the subsea part, the gas pipeline will also be built in Denmark, infrastructure will also be important for us, because we want to send this gas further south of Poland. 2022 is the planned completion date

The EU will not support fossil fuels? EC proposal

Work on the draft European Union budget for 2021-2027 is going on. On Tuesday, the European Commission published a proposal for a document on the shape of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund. There is a record in it that any support for fossil fuels will be stopped.

The sixth article of this document says that the ERDF and the Fund will not support, inter alia, the decommissioning and construction of nuclear power plants and the production, processing, distribution and combustion of fossil fuels.

The budgetary perspective of the cohesion fund for 2021-2027 is to amount to 373 billion euros, of which Poland is expected to receive its largest share, almost 65 billion euros.