By Ioannis N. Grigoriadis

ATHENS – The fallout in Russian-Ukrainian relations earlier this year discontinued natural gas supplies in several European Union member states. In effect, it underscored the urgency of a new European energy security strategy.

Within this context, the importance of Southeastern Europe as one of the key energy transit regions for the European market was once again highlighted. The long-debated construction of natural gas pipelines capable of supplying the European market with sufficient quantities of natural gas, while reducing EU dependency on Russian natural gas, came to the fore once again.

An EU summit was held in Prague in May to address the realization of the “Southern Corridor,” a pipeline network supplying Europe with natural gas via Southeastern Europe.

Greece, the oldest EU member state in the region and a major economic player, strategically positioned between East and West, is naturally involved in this energy scramble. In fact, one of the most significant products of the Greek-Turkish rapprochement has been cooperation in the field of energy.

The Turkey-Greece-Italy (TGI) Interconnector pipeline aims to enable European access to non-Russian natural gas supply. The completion of the Turkey-Greece leg of the project has already made a difference in regional energy security.

When the Russian gas supply of the region was interrupted by the January crisis in Russian-Ukrainian relations, Azeri natural gas continued to flow toward Greece via Turkey.

Although still heavily reliant on Russia for its natural gas imports, Greece fared better in the crisis than other neighboring countries, and this because Greece had recourse to the TGI natural gas as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG).

What’s more, Greece was even able to export natural gas to Bulgaria, which was among the countries hardest hit by the interruption of natural gas supply.

The recent announcement of the construction of an additional Greek-Bulgarian pipeline from Komotini, in northeast Greece, to Haskovo, in southeast Bulgaria, highlighted the significance and the success of the project. This pipeline project aims to facilitate the import of TGI natural gas to Bulgaria.

Greece is also involved in the construction of the South Stream pipeline, a Russian project aiming to circumvent Ukraine and enable the access of Russian natural gas to the European market via Southeastern Europe. Greece’s interest in attracting the construction of a second trans-regional, natural-gas pipeline through its territory has been sometimes viewed with suspicion and understood as willingness to compromise European strategic interests in favor of a special strategic relationship with Russia.

However, this point misses the fact that alongside the limitation of European dependency on Russian natural gas imports, the increase of natural gas supply to the European market is a parallel European strategic task. To realize this, European authorities need to collaborate with all major natural gas exporters, including Russia. While meeting Europe’s increasing natural gas needs from Russia is not desirable – in terms of diversifying energy supply – or might not even be possible – in terms of Russia’s own production capacity – Russia will remain a major exporter in the European natural gas market.

Projects like the South Stream will enable the import of additional natural gas quantities from Russia, in addition to natural gas originating from the Caspian Sea or the Middle East, if these quantities become available to the European market.

This means that projects such as Nabucco, which aims to bring non-Russian natural gas from Turkey to Austria, and South Stream are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

To be a good European, Greece does not need to ditch its relationship with Russia. In fact, the opposite might be true.

Ioannis N. Grigoriadis is a Lecturer at the Department of Turkish & Modern Asian Studies, University of Athens and a Research Associate at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP).