EU invests €150m in energy infrastructure

The European Union (EU) decided to allocate 150 million euros to key trans-European energy infrastructure projects, the European Commission said here on Tuesday.

The bulk of the money will go to projects in Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe as well as to projects in the Baltic region, the commission said in a statement, while 20 projects were selected in total.

In the gas sector, the allocated grants will cover, among others, studies for the Chiren underground storage expansion project in Bulgaria and works on the interconnection between Poland and the Czech Republic, according to he statement.

Funding will also be allocated to innovative studies on how to remove a major obstacle to the free flow of gas in the EU. It is said that this study will identify solutions to allow bidirectional flows on a major north-south pipeline in Germany.

The overall goal of the projects selected for financial support is to enhance the security of supply and improve market integration through the diversification of sources and routes, the European commission said.

According to the statement, projects were selected following a call for proposals under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), an EU funding program for infrastructure.

A total of 5.35 billion euros has been allocated to trans-European energy infrastructure for the period of 2014-2020 under the CEF.