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Gunther Oettinger, on the failure of Nabucco West: The decision was based on commercial deliberations, to put it bluntly: money talks / The European Commission remains neutral in this kind of situations and treats all investors the same

July 2, 2013

European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger said in an interview for HotNews.ro that the failure of Nabucco West in the competition for the Azeri natural gas was "a commercial decision" of the Azerbaijani consortium. "To put it bluntly: money talks", declared Oettinger, explaining why Azerbaidjan was more attracted by the winning bid of the TAP project. Asked if the decision of the Azerbaijani consortium was a victory of Russia against the EU, the commissioner said "I would certainly not put it that way" and explained that the European Commission remains neutral regarding the competition which could reduce the dependence of Southeastern Europe on gas imports from Russia.

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