Police on Monday clashed with
protestors demonstrating against a tunnel for the TranAdriatic
Pipeline (TAP) gas pipeline project in Puglia.
Demonstrators threw eggs at the police outside a conference
on energy and pipelines in Lecce.
The TranAdriatic Pipeline, which has been approved by the
environment ministry and by the Council of State, Italy's
highest administrative court, aims to bring Caspian gas to
Europe.
There have been repeated clashes over the removal of olive
trees for the pipeline tunnel - despite the fact that they will
be put back once work is completed.
Before he became Italian premier, then Foreign Minister Paolo
Gentiloni said last year that "The creation of the Trans
Adriatic Pipeline is strategic for the diversification of
provision sources" not just for "the EU and the Balkans" but
also "for Italy".
Speaking in June at the foreign ministry in Rome during the
fourth session of the inter-governmental commission on economic
cooperation between Italy and Azerbaijan, Gentiloni said "after
the inauguration of the project in Thessaloniki, about one month
ago, a challenge has opened: seeing Azeri gas reach Italy by
2020" .
"Now we can look at new horizons", he said. The objective,
recalled Gentiloni, is to boost economic and political relations
between Rome and Baku, considered a "strategic regional
partner".
The TAP consortium is made up of the following companies:
BP (20%), SOCAR (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enags
(16%) and Axpo (5%).
It is set to invest 5.6 billion euros in the gas pipeline in
the next few years.
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