The energy summit to be held in Ukraine this week can play an important role for Europe in diversification of the energy resources, Carlo Stagnaro, Director of the Department Energy and Environment of the Bruno Leoni Institute of Italy said.

Energy summit on energy security will be held in Kiev on 22 to 23 May. The government and business delegations of about 30 countries will take part in the conference including the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, the energy commissar of the European Commission, representatives of UN, OSCE, EBRD and World Bank. The key subject of the conference will be feasibility study of the Odessa-Brodi-Plotsk-Gdansk oil pipeline and establishment of the open Baltic-Black Sea- Caspian energy transit space. The summit aims at looking for energy supply sources independent from Russia.

According to Stagnaro, it is difficult to asses the influence the summit on the further development of the projects aiming at decreasing energy dependence of Europe from Russia.
“It is important that a political consensus is created for energy projects that can help us [ Europe] to move towards a greater diversification in energy sources,” Stagnaro said to TrendCapital on 20 May.

According to the expert, this is not just related to the very import of natural gas, but also has to do with the greater degree of openness that countries such as the Caspian ones have as far as the upstream sector is concerned, as opposed to Russia’s tough political approach to the energy sector.

According to Stagnaro, international meetings and hands-shake are not enough to develop such projects.