French MP: 'Gas pipelines should be limited to regional routes' 

"In the short term, we should keep solidarity between member states," said Guillet. The MP wants to avoid a new gas crisis like the one which affected several East European countries last January (see EurActiv LinksDossier).

"In the medium term, we need to build a network which covers the whole of Europe," Guillet said. "Currently Central European networks are linked only with Russia" but "the Baltic states, Poland, Romania or Bulgaria should also be served by Western Europe," he added.

Guillet is in favour of investing in liquefied natural gas (LNG), which can be shipped around the world in specially constructed sea-going vessels called LNG carriers.

The MP also suggests improving the mechanism to reverse gas flows: for the moment, gas can only go from Russia to Europe through Ukraine. "We should be able to deliver gas from Zeebrugge [Belgium], Montoir, Fos-sur-Mer [France] or Italy to countries suffering from the gas crisis," he declared.

"In the long term, we should go further. Creating conditions for a real energy partnership with Russia is necessary," he said.

The French MP believes the Nabucco pipeline project is risky. "Building gas infrastructure to bring gas [from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan] can create an artificial conflict with Russia, which we do not need," he said (EurActiv 14/07/09).

"Gas pipelines are necessary but should be limited to regional routes," he said. "We have no interest in relying on a transit country, whichtever it is. The more we build infrastructure that passes through foreign countries, the more we are creating short or medium-term geopolitical problems," he added.

"The Nabucco project is of no interest if there is no gas from Iran. But gas from Iran is not available for the moment," Guillet said. He explained that Ankara wants to participate in Iranian gas extraction to sell it to Europe from Turkey.

As for renewable energies, he said these cannot replace gas, petrol or nuclear energy. Moreover, "we need to invest in networks," he insisted.

To read the full interview in French, please click here .