EU signs deal on new gas pipeline

The European Union has signed an agreement with four countries in a bid to press ahead with a gas pipeline that would reduce its reliance on Russian energy. 

• Azerbaijan and Egypt, which can both supply gas, and Turkey and Georgia, which are able to carry it, signed up to the Nabucco gas pipeline scheme on Friday at a meeting in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic.
• Three key nations – Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – refused to sign the text, diplomatic sources told the AFP news agency.
• Representatives from the United States, Russia and Ukraine also attended the summit as observers to the agreement.
• Iraq, which was also invited to the meeting, did not send any officials.
• The summit intends to kick-start the Nabucco pipeline, which would link the EU to gas rich nations on and beyond the Caspian Sea, bypassing Russia and Ukraine.
• The pipeline, which once completed would stretch 3,300km from Turkey to Austria, could transport up to 31bn cubic metres of gas each year to western Europe.
• It is hoped that it will start pumping gas to Europe by 2014.
• The EU is keen to speed up the construction of the pipeline after a dispute between Russia and Ukraine in January over gas prices left large areas of Europe without  supplies of the resource for two weeks.